Vladimir Potapov

I

t is not an easy task to tell about the creative activity of sculptor Yuri Shurupov: by their very concept and technique his works stand apart from any traditions. Instead of sculptor’ usual tools he uses … a welding apparatus. It does not really matter that a set of occasionally picked items looks like a scrap heap. Shurupov’s strong imagination and skilful hands produce something unique but, at the same time, recognizable, capable of making anyone feel inspired. And this feature of Shurupov’s compositions gives plenty of reasons to consider them a genuine art.
This new trend in Russia with Yuri Shurupov being at its outset is called the ‘man-caused’ sculpture.
There was a chance to see one of works of this genre during the recent Moscow Metals Summit. The forum’s participants were met in the hall of the Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya Hotel by the sculpture ‘Angel Marksman’ looking like a combative alien from some extraterrestrial civilization. By the strangeness of components and silvery luster of polished metal the statue roused keen interest among delegates, who represented the elite of the steel industry and non-ferrous metallurgy, pipe-making industry and metallurgical engineering. In other words, among all those, who deal directly with metal and who know well its properties both within and beyond their professional duties.
It is no secret that there are a lot of businessmen in metallurgy, who devote to metals their free time as well. For example, Gianpietro Benedetti, the president & CEO of the Danieli company, admits that he is greatly interested not only in the jeweler’s art but also in designing motorcycles. The motorcycle with a Harley Davidson motor, which was made according to his drafts, was recognized at London’s exhibition as the best in Europe among those constructed to order.
So, the ‘man-caused’ sculpturing by Yuri Shurupov has found its grateful audience. And precisely this prompted us to ask the author to tell about himself. Particularly, we would like to know how he became a sculpture, why welding happened to be his favorite method of doing creative work, what innovations he introduced in this technology and, finally, how public in general reacted to his unusual avant-garde works? Here is what he told us:
– I was born in March 1964 in the city of Tiraspol (Moldavia), in the family of a tank officer and a medical doctor. I have been living in Moscow since 1972. Worked as a restorer, attended the Moscow Institute of Architecture. Was interested in painting, graphics, the jeweler’s art, interior designing and wall-painting. Did mechanical and car body repairs for several years and studied various technologies. For the last several years I have been working on metallic sculptural compositions.
The metallic plastic arts have always attracted me. But I needed to learn a lot before starting to work on sculptures. Probably, the specifics of my work is that I regard the three-dimensional material as graphics. I do things as if I do them on paper. The difference is that I work in space only and I work with a chopper and welding apparatus, not with a pencil. At first, I do sketches, of course, but they all are tentative. I never do models. The technological part of the process is very important: I have to carefully select components for sculptures, to clean them from dirt, corrosion and change their shape, if needed. Then, I try to do the rest as perfectly as I can.
My work on sculpture starts, more often than not, with an idea that sometimes is abstract. It takes some time to develop the idea. During the process of selecting different metallic items – I always have a lot of them at hand – it begins to get transformed into an image. While the composition is being worked on, this image can be changed or get supplemented with some other ideas. In short, every sculpture has its own history.
The harmony between form and style is particularly important for the image perception. In fact, achieving precisely this harmony is the main creative task for me. The idea, composition rules and artistic intuition are all playing their role here. First of all, I make the so-called skeleton and use it to adjust proportions and contours, then, I work over details and style.
As a material, I use components of totally different mechanisms: of airplanes and typewriters, of cars and refrigerators, of cinema equipment and household tools…
Considering the cultural and, to some extent, philosophical aspects of creating such compositions, then, above all, the idea comes to mind about some turnover of technological excesses and waste, which get involved in a new environment as those same parts of mechanisms. They get a new life and new properties, which are expressive and decorative. Gaining new images they link two worlds of practical expediency and physical, though imaginary, nature.
My basic instruments are a welding semiautomatic device and an angle-polishing machine with a set of brushes and abrasives. From time to time I use with great pleasure a plasma chopper. I use different materials: mainly, different kinds of steel, of course, but also copper, brass, bronze, aluminum alloys, glass, bamboo…
I have never examined viewers’ reaction to my works in any special way, although it might be very interesting to find it out. Thanks for the idea. But I can definitely say: so far I have not met indifferent people. Some would smile saying ‘funny’, some would get interested asking "how has it been done?", some others begin to think "what is the point of all this?". According to my observations, viewers’ reaction does not depend on their education, age, social and financial status. A person should have a little imagination, at least. That is the main thing.

The bottom line of the sculptor’s story is the assessment of his creative activity by those, who are not indifferent to the three-dimensional arts, including the metallic one. And it is not surprising that most of Yuri Shurupov’s works have found their place in private collections.