Moscow’s Regina Gallery hosts a show by Pavel Pepperstein’s art collective

Pavel Pepperstein is not just a man of the brush. The artist, intellectual and founding member of the conceptual art group Inspection Medical Hermeneutics also dabbles in novel-writing, spoken-word poetry (you might call it rap) and even cooking - he concocted a suitably surreal recipe for oatmeal for our Reigning in Russia issue (W* 164), currently on sale.
This month, however, Pepperstein is going with the title 'installation artist'. On Sunday, Moscow's Regina Gallery launches the latest show by the collective, featuring one of their most enduring works, 'The Pipe or The Alley of Longevity'.
The 1995 work by Pepperstein and his colleague Sergei Anufriev centres around a giant horizontal cylinder, inside which is a room scene furnished like a doll's house - the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It can seem distinctly large and accessible when viewed with the binoculars provided, or microscopic and distant.
Around the perimeter of the space are framed drawings of elderly men, who get even older within each frame, and of young babies, who similarly get younger. The suggestion is that they live outside time, eternally.
The exhibition, which has travelled to galleries across Europe, cuts to the heart of the group's ideas on distance, time and disappearance, and is a departure from Pepperstein's vibrant graphic watercolours, which have earned the artist devotees worldwide.
One of their most enduring installations, the 1995 work by Pepperstein and his colleague Sergei Anufriev, centres around a giant horizontal cylinder, inside which is a room scene furnished like a doll's house
Around the perimeter of the space are framed drawings of elderly men, who get even older within each frame, and of young babies, who similarly get younger. The suggestion is that they live outside time, eternally
'2016', from the The Pipe or the Alley of Longevity, by Pavel Pepperstein 1995
'871014', from The Pipe or the Alley of Longevity, by Pavel Pepperstein, 1995
'921000000152', from The Pipe or the Alley of Longevity, by Pavel Pepperstein, 1995
'218 years', from The Pipe or the Alley of Longevity, by Pavel Pepperstein, 1995
'64021 years', from The Pipe or the Alley of Longevity, by Pavel Pepperstein 1995
'114000029883 years', from The Pipe or the Alley of Longevity, by Pavel Pepperstein 1995
The exhibition is a departure from Pepperstein's brilliantly coloured graphic watercolours, which have earned the artist devotees worldwide. Pictured, from the gallery's archives, is 'Portrait of Capital', by Pavel Pepperstein, 2008
'The Birth of Hollywood', by Pavel Pepperstein, 2008
'The Black Square with Spirals', by Pavel Pepperstein, 2010
'Matryoshka', by Pavel Pepperstein, 2010
'The Dying Gangster', by Pavel Pepperstein, 2010
'The last fight of Europe', by Pavel Pepperstein, 2011
ADDRESS
Regina Gallery
1, 4th Syromyatnichesky pereulok
105120, Moscow
Russia
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Based in London, Ellen Himelfarb travels widely for her reports on architecture and design. Her words appear in The Times, The Telegraph, The World of Interiors, and The Globe and Mail in her native Canada. She has worked with Wallpaper* since 2006.
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