Art in isolation: they propose to recreate works of art with lentils, cabbage and stockings

By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber

MOSCOW, Apr 8 (Reuters) – While making blinis one morning at her home during the confinement for the coronavirus, Natalia Goroschko realized that one in her frying pan had taken the flexible form of one of Salvador Dalí’s melted watches.

The 31-year-old Belarusian living in Texas placed three blinis in her kitchen to mimic her position in Dalí’s painting, then photographed her creation and posted it to a Russian Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/ groups / izoizolyacia), where she encouraged her members to reproduce famous works of art with items they had in their homes.

Created last week, “Izoizolyacia” – or Art in Isolation – now has more than 300,000 members and many publications including a version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” made in slippers and clothing and “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich, Composed of stockings hanging from a towel rack.

Some participants also dressed with their families in elaborate costumes to reproduce portraits of the past with varying degrees of precision.

“There is a lot of free time now and I loved how people started getting absorbed in art,” said Goroshko, a mother of two with a background in graphic design and photography.

The Russian Facebook group joins similar initiatives, including a Dutch Instagram account with 155,000 followers, which has encouraged quarantined people to channel their artistic talents to recreate masterpieces.

Moscow-based Yulia Tabolkina, a painting enthusiast, traded in her brushes and palette for what she could find in the pantry to create her own versions of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Munch’s “The Scream”.

Tabolkina used lentils, buckwheat, beans, and other foods to produce different shades, and used her window sill as a canvas.

“It really helps keep morale high right now because people are at home and it’s difficult,” said the 33-year-old woman who spent about an hour on each of her creations. “This group helps cheer them on,” he added.

(Edited in Spanish by Lucila Sigal)