From Stone to Ether - Multimedia Palimpsest

16 Mar 2023 - by Liz Jakimow

This article will appear in the next issue of Engage.

Are you ready to unravel the layers of your reality and travel from Stone to Ether?

Anatoly Golobokov

My name is Anatoly, and I am delighted for the opportunity to bring my exhibition ‘From Stone to Ether: the journey within’ back to the ACC&C in April 2023 and share my ideas and vision with the world.

I am a Florentine Mosaic and Roman Micro-mosaic master and have devoted over 30 years of my professional life to learning, perfecting, and preserving these techniques. The unique art of Florentine Mosaic is almost 500 years old and is by far one of the hardest that still exists today. My creations may appear to be painted, yet they are crafted from small pieces of precious and semi-precious stones. Through my mosaics I aim to demonstrate how incredibly broad the stone colour palette is, highlight the intricacies of stone textures and structures and reveal how versatile stones can be despite having a very hard and cold facade. I aim to create timeless art and thanks to these materials my mosaics will never fade and will forever preserve their beautiful colours and textures exactly as they were found in nature.

In my mosaics I explore a range of topics that are very close to my heart: from classic iconography, sacred topics of religion and divine theories to mathematical and scientific theories, philosophy, and metaphysics. These are not ordinary concepts, nor do you often see science and religion combined as one. Although these topics may seem worlds apart, and even opposing at times, they are both very prevalent and form the basis for my philosophical work.

My art examines both science and religion individually and delves into their relationship with one another to show how closely intertwined they really are. I look at our three-dimensional world as a temple that was gifted to us by God and explore the endless realms of our Universe, three-dimensional and multi-dimensional worlds, time, space, beginning and purpose of our being, superior consciousness, and limitless faith.

The exhibition I am bringing back is called ‘From Stone to Ether: the journey within’. It gives a unique opportunity to experience the mosaics themselves and presents a semi-immersive digital experience, which invites the audience to completely immerse themselves in my art philosophies and experience the transition between the physical reality and what may hide within. This digital portion builds a bridge connecting my physical art and its digital counterpart. It’s through digital animation I am able to transform my two-dimensional mosaics into living breathing worlds and share my vision to explain the essence of each of my mosaics. In other words, in this exhibition I take my audience on a journey within the mosaics and challenge them to explore and unveil the potential of our being.

The semi-immersive digital portion of my exhibition is what I would like to call a multimedia palimpsest. Like in an ordinary palimpsest, being a ‘multi-layered record’[i], in a multimedia palimpsest the messaging is revealed through layering a combination of traditional and new media. ‘From Stone to Ether: the journey within’ presents a hybrid animated video reel that unravels a multilayered alternate space, within which mosaics come alive and an array of symbolisms, quotes, associations, ideas, and hints reveal themselves through and between one another. It’s through these multimedia layers, activating your multiple senses all at once, you can discover meanings and interpretations for the art presented before you.

If you would like to explore how the divine and the sacred are intertwined with the metaphysical space and the essence of our creation and being, then I would love to see you at my upcoming exhibition of a multi-layered reality and a semi-immersive digital journey.

When you see my mosaics, I encourage you to look at them not just as two-dimensional art but look within and beyond their surface to explore what they may hold within. Let the concept of the multimedia palimpsest guide you. I invite you to go on a journey within and open your mind to the endless layers of the unknown and mysterious, the divine and the powerful, and the limitless possibilities of meanings and interpretations that exist within each of my pieces.

See you there!

‘From Stone to Ether: the journey within’

Date: 13 – 18 April 2023

Time: 10.30am – 3.30pm daily (including weekends)

Address: The Chapel, 15 Blackall Street, Barton