Plastic Mythology
(2011–2016)
 

The project comprises 68 works: 60 photographs and collages, 2 installations, and 6 sculptural forms. The titles of the works are an integral part of the series.

“In the project Plastic Mythology, Yaroslav Solop turns to an ancient Greek epic, whose main characters are gods and heroes. He recreates mythological narratives and reinterprets them in a contemporary context. Working on the project became a way for the artist to explore human relationships and social structures, and to question established notions of power, corruption, censorship, and violence.
At the same time, in his works, Solop deliberately strips his characters of their grandeur: he adds contemporary symbols of consumerism to sculptural forms and installations, while in his photographs, using direct flash, he flattens the figures of the heroes and immerses them in a surreal space.
The artist’s works balance on the boundary between the real and the imaginary, the political and the mythological. In this way, Solop created one possible mythology of the present — flat, artificial, and consumerist. That is why, in the author’s words, it is “plastic” — stripped of the dignity that the myths of the past celebrated and exalted.”
— Tetyana Kochubinska, curator and art historian (Kyiv, Ukraine, 2016)

The project was presented in solo exhibitions:
2017 — Plastic Mythology/Comedy with Elements of Drama, curated by Daria Shevtsova and Ksenia Malykh (Closer Exhibition Space, Kyiv, Ukraine);
2015 — Plastic Mythology/Love and War in Ukraine, curated by Misha Pedan (Axel Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden).

Group exhibitions:
2021 — Sensitivity, curated by Max Gorbatskyi, Oleksandr Solovyov, and Solomiia Savchuk (Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine);
2021 — 10, curated by Hannibal Volkoff (Galerie Hors-Champs, Paris, France);
2018 — Ouverture de la Nouvelle, curated by Camilo Racana (Galerie Hors-Champs, Paris, France);
2017 — Art Knows no Frontiers, curated by Camilo Racana (ERA, Trier, Germany);
2017 — Mythologies, curated by Borys Filonenko and Anastasiia Leonova (Come in Gallery, Kharkiv, Ukraine);
2015 — Un Homme Chapitre III, curated by Camilo Racana (Galerie Hors-Champs, Paris, France);
2015 — Open Letter. Naked Emotions, curated by Anna Gaidai (14 Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine);
2015 — Boundaries of the Possible, curated by Yaroslav Solop (Municipal Gallery, Poznań, Poland);
2014 — Boundaries of the Possible, curated by Yaroslav Solop (Art Kyiv Contemporary, Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine);
2013 — Industrial Eden, curated by Andriy Sydorenko (Art Kyiv Contemporary, Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine);
2012 — YPHM, Month of Young Photography, curated by Anton Belov (Izhevsk, and Moscow, Russia);
2012 — The Plastic Mythology/Resistance Project, 3rd Moscow International Biennale of Young Art, curated by Vita and Anna Buyvid (Winzavod, Moscow, Russia);
2012 — Cult of the Body, curated by Misha Pedan (Leisure Gallery, London, UK);
2012 — Cult of the Body, curated by Misha Pedan (Bardens Gallery, Bristol, UK).


 

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Works from the Plastic Mythology project are held in private collections and holdings:
MOKSOP/Museum of the Kharkiv School of Photography (Kharkiv, Ukraine);
Grynyov Art Collection (Kyiv, Ukraine);
Galleri Axel (Stockholm, Sweden);
Galerie Hors-Champs (Paris, France);
ERA (Trier, Germany).