Rustam Khalfin
© Photo: M HKA
Pulotas
Installation
, 125 x 20 x 2,7 cm, 64 x 74 x 2,7 cm, 24 x 500 x 2,7 cm, 81 x 78 x 2,7 cm, 24 x 20 x 2,7 cm, 60 x 117 x 2,7 cm, 197 x 68 x 2,7 cm
Plywood
The elementary objects installed along with Khalfin's video pieces are called Pulota (plural: puloty or pulotas), referring to a central concept of Khalfin meaning ‘a void in a fist’. They represent the hollow space within a fist, a bodily camera obscura. The word itself is a combination of the Russian words pustota (void) and kulak (fist) and refers to nomadic wanderings through one’s inner space, an exploration which occupied Khalfin throughout his professional and personal life.
Rustam Khalfin started to develop the concept of pulota in the 1990s. The ensembles of seven wooden objects acquired by M HKA in 2010 is a reconstruction based upon the original models by Kazakh artists Yelena Vorobyeva and Viktor Vorobyev.
