Andro Wekua: the Pink Wave Hunter

Andro Wekua is one of the most acknowledged Georgian artists on the international scale. Being represented by the leading names such as the Gladstone gallery, he left Georgia when 16, but his art remains bound up with the homeland. Frequently the subject matter of Wekua’s art is the loss, detachment and the reminiscing of his hometown of Sukhumi. The Abkhaz-Georgian conflict that has killed generations of men (the artist’s father too) left thousands including Andro Wekua homeless.

                                       

Working in various media, his recent choice is the architectural models, (as the one featuring in the Artforum). The Pink Wave Hunter consists of a bunch of architectural models all constructed upon the imagery of the now abandoned buildings in Sukhumi. The research has united the exiles from the city, as their memories and personal photography have been the prime sources along with the Internet material. However, the aim was not a truthful reconstruction of those buildings, rather to point out the ephemerality and the subjective nature of memory. Evidently, there is a desperate outcry to preserve these mental images, already fading to the unrecognisable.

                                                        Beach Restaurant Dioskuria

Some of the sculptures as the lonesome façade of the Communist Party headquarters building hint on the memory gaps- there was not enough recollection to restore the whole of the building.  The chosen buildings bear sentimental value to the artist, but he has also included the ones that would be equally touching to larger audiences. Sukhumi being a prime summer location among the Soviet citizens the hotels like Abkhazia revive joyful memories. Particularly for Georgians these hotels have come to exemplify the time when the living for the majority was much easier and the country was whole, all the sentiments that justify the Ostalgie characteristic to the post-soviet countries.

                                              Communist Party Headquarters

                                                             Hotel Abkhazia 

                                                             Hotel Ritsa

Wekua’s art is particularly vital as it concerns the newest history of the region. Moreover, it gives a different dimension to the realities of wars and conflicts. The incurable trauma of being an exile and the chronic desire of reconnecting to and recreating the home are essential to his oeuvre. He surfaces the sentiments and the terminal harms that are often lost in the breaking news reportages.

This paragraph featuring in Artforum ties into his ever-present desire and obsession even to reconstruct Sukhumi in his mind. Reminiscence of a seemingly mundane day acquires critical importance for recreating and reimagining the home forever destroyed.

Pink Wave Hunter at the 54th Venice Biennial