«Українці XYZ: звички, смаки, побут».

PERFECT RELATIONSHIP in collaboration with Julia Po Instagram
(2020-2021)

Perfect Relationship is a series of photographs created by Artem Humilevsky and Julia Po in the time of Corona. Initially, these artists were depicting scenes of everyday life and posted on the Internet. They did not know each other but their mutual friends have noticed the same splits in their images. And so the artists started collaborating: they were capturing their life in familiar settings and connected these two worlds using Photoshop. In fact, home life is one of the most private spheres of our being. It is the most truthful essence of human nature because when it comes to personal comfort, there is no need to hide one's real personality. Humilevsky's unbridled postures and self-restraint of slender Po are contrasting yet strikingly harmonious, reminding images of B and nymph. In their pictures, the regular household chores are reminiscent of theatre aesthetics, and everyday life turns into a fun carnival. For Julia, self-isolation was a deliberate choice and began even before the quarantine. The experience of voluntary self-ostracism has encouraged her to feel different. Achievements and social recognition form our self-esteem, and, being out of the game, we may discover that our sense of self is unstable or even lost. The body is the only thing that belongs to human beings completely, and as reliable evidence that "I exist." The creation of a self-portrait allowed the artist to recreate the self-image, regardless of social approval. Artem Humilevsky, like most people, was forced into self-isolation. Quarantine restrictions have become a painful challenge for all of us. Society has split into two camps: the camp of people who started to work on personal development, frequently boasting about their achievements and yoga classes on social media, and annoying those, from the second camp, who fell into apathy and boredom. To counterbalance overall negativity, Artem began to do ironic staged shots, capturing himself naked and ridiculous. If somebody told us one year ago that all cafes, restaurants, shopping malls, and cinemas would be closed at once; that flights and railway services would be canceled; that we would not be capable to hug each other; that we would be wearing gloves and mask for food shopping, we would rather believe nuclear war is quite possible. This absurdity is our reality now, and surprisingly, adopted new calmly and began to transfer the remnants of reality in the online world. It is impossible to maintain the usual order of things in modern conditions, and any attempts to maintain stability lead only to disappointment. But possibly, that creative collaboration can be a fruitful substitute for stability. The series "Perfect relationship" connected the realities of two completely diverse people. And, despite its comic aspects, these worlds are full of desire to flee beyond any circumstances and limitations. This is what we call freedom.