Polya, Karelia region, Church of the Prophet Elijah (18th C)

DateC. 2002

MediumInk jet print

Dimensions23 × 16 1/2 in. (58.4 × 41.9 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineGift of the artist

Object number2021.14.6

Label Text"In the summer of 1902 Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876 - 1942) the well known artist, stage designer and illustrator of Russian Folk Tales travelled to the Vologda Province in the North of Russia. As well as collecting and studying the local folk art he drew and photographed the wooden architecture... Seeing these beautiful postcards inspired Richard to travel to the Russian North in 2002 to find out which churches had survived. Further trips have followed every year. Many churches have been lost: some have been left to rot; some have been destroyed by lightning; countless others by ignorance, spite and neglect...There is however much to celebrate. The integrity between the landscape and the architecture of this wooden world is as striking to us today as it was to Bilibin. The basic simplicity of the log cabin construction and the extravagant fantasies superimposed on it are just as startling. Although the churches that remain are in varying states of decay and despite their neglect and the wrecking of their interiors, these extraordinary structures have a spiritual presence which commands respect even in the absence of their gilded icons." - Matilda Moreton, Richard Davies. London August 2007

Status

Not on view

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