Graphics and painting

YOU ARE CANCELED 

Acrylic and oil on canvas, 80x100 cm 2023

Flags are associated in our minds with the state, power and national pride. Flags are chanted and kept in museums, they are worshipped and died for, they can unite and divide. The flag’s transformation is an important motif of Konstantin Benkovich’s art. He depicts the banners of imaginary states and anti-utopias, whose regime is alarming or even frightening. Through color transformations, the artist changes the context, hyperbolizes the symbols and brings their essence to the point of absurdity. The shade of khaki becomes a sign of militarism, the rainbow colors reflect the concerns of minorities and pink is trying to build against the red color of blood, which often adorns the flags of sometimes even the most peaceful countries. The artist designates himself, his alter ego as the yellow duck. Benkovich works with recognizable symbols, changing the context, destroying the original meanings through material, color and modularity. Desacralization of flags as symbols of power, statehood and territorial domination becomes the basis of a visual monologue about the essence of freedom and unfreedom, so important these days