Timofey Illarionov

FROM ARCHITECTURE TO ART

I always loved to draw, and back in school, after watching “School of renovation” (a russian TV show about renovation of apartments, – trans.) a bit too much, I have made lots of different interior drawings, silly and funny. One of them had a huge pole with flowers attached to it right in the middle of the room.

My mom suggested that I should start attending an art school, and after a couple of discussions we decided that it’s time for me to prepare for studying architecture.

It was quite difficult to study, but I was captivated by some certain classes: the drawing, draftsmanship geometry and projecting design. I spent all my spare time at home continuing to draw, mastered different techniques, the oil and color pencils, always sketching something up.

Then I went for the master degree and I was still quite determined to become an architect. At some point I have decided that it’s time to start working and I have sent my QV to this architectural bureau, where they were organizing some sort of contest and were looking for people to help with the concept and pictures, and, well, they got me on board very quickly.

We were making this contest for like a month, and after completing it, the routine days had started, unveiling the tasks and projects the bureau had been working on before my appearance. I got a task of drawing a park bench, which I had no idea of, and I was working on it non-stop, ending up sleeping before the monitor, and when it was done, I was told that I marked the drawing with the wrong font. I asked to fire me that exact day.

I don’t want to keep somebody from becoming an architect, it’s a great job anyway, it just has lots of nuances I had struggles with. All the folks at the bureau certainly were where they’re meant to be, while I was constantly thinking that if I continue working there, I will not be able to draw anymore.

So, that wraps up my bureau work for just a month and a half. My grandma is still sad, saying it’s a pity I’m not an architect.

ART + TEACHING + TATTOO

It may sound surprising, but turns out I can manage all the things that I do quite easily. By the time I left the bureau, I had been teaching people academic drawing for two years already, working in the evenings three times per week, and I was enjoying teaching and communicating with my students, I still enjoy it, in fact. It’s quite a routine thing to teach people how to draw, but it’s definitely a work I can do and enjoy. The themes of every class are the same, but having to communicate with different people makes this work diverse. It’s also good that I have to concentrate my attention only directly at the lessons, and I have lots of time left for my artworks.

Right before joining the bureau, I had my first tattoo made by my friend Vasya Stadler. We went to the Moscow Architectural Institute some time ago together, but he had chosen another university back then, graduated from it, and worked a bit. Then something went wrong and he began doing the tattoos, and got very good at it. Finally, he suggested I start doing some tattoos by myself, and I thought “Cool, yet another interesting technique and some quick money!”. It’s been almost two years since then.

The tattoos take the tiniest part of my time and attention. People usually need something simple and easy to understand, and they prefer tattoos in realistic, graphical or traditional style (something with anchors, women and roses). I ended up being visited mostly by people of art, who can see the artist in me and not just a tattooer. I do from two to three tattoos every month, and I’m OK with that.

I spend all my spare time thinking about drawing something and I draw it, when it comes to mind. I find energy and inspiration in everything I see around me, from some funny situations on the street to some things I see in my dreams (should write them down fast before I forget), I just try to be attentive.

A year ago I realized that I needed some space to work on my own, and I opened a workshop.

FROM ACADEMIC DRAWINGS TO PERSONAL STYLE

There are two stages of me becoming an artist (speaking of the current time; I generally think this process should continue throughout the whole lifetime):

• At the first stage I never really bothered what to draw, I was just doing as I was told and tried to perform it as well as I could, and that way I have mastered the classic drawing and painting.

• Then the second stage happened, when you sit in front of the canvas and you don’t know what to draw, because you are sick of doing another portrait or nature. I wasn’t seeing any growth, didn’t realize how you can appear on Tate Modern if you just continue to draw portraits. All of this was also more complicated by the fact that I wanted to have my own universal visual language which I could apply to any format or technique, speaking of tattoos, sculptures or prints (the classic painting definitely wasn’t meeting this criteria). I started to look for a way to simplify the form and eventually throw away things I didn’t need in my paintings. Started thinking more about composition, silhouette and that kind of thing.

I found the answer to the “what should I paint” question by simply looking around and noting things that happen in my life, letting it be beautiful or funny, or better both at the same time.

THE WORKSHOP

The workshop is located near the Enthusiasts road, beside an industrial area, surrounded by warehouses, tire shops and such, but our building brings together different creative guys: we have ceramic artists; an architectural bureau on the floor above, apartments at the attic, a band of drummers below and my closest neighbors are manicure masters.

My space is just a bit larger than 35 meters, I have everything that I need here, and sometimes I transform the room when I need more students seated. I try to use it to the maximum. I have moved recently, I used to have the same room on this floor on the other side, but it was dark and low. I got high ceilings and a large window on the sunny side after moving, so I got lucky.

When I come here to paint or build something (a purple wardrobe, for example), I connect the speaker to my phone, turn on the Soundcloud and start to work pretty quickly, with no special rituals. But I have one ritual before I leave the studio: I usually work here till I’m done physically and mentally, and when I realize it’s time to go home, I lay on my carpet, turn on the pink lamp and lay there for 15 minutes, rebooting myself.

INSPIRATION

I used to find inspiration in the works of Benjamin Bjorklund, when I studied the portraits, and I still think of his technique as one of the greatest discoveries of modern paintings. I also love the form-making in the works of Olle Halvars, I even have the tattoo of one of his serigraphies (made with the permission granted, of course). There’s also a duo of Palefroi and Yan Kebbi, the inexhaustible idea generators. Speaking of classics, I can speak of Timur Novikov as a man who taught me to value the blank space of the canvas just as much as the contents.

PLANS

My nearest plan is to grab my architect friends and my architect wife and go to our suburban house, where we have found a bridge with some very unusual piers with a broken rhythm. Each of us is going to build something temporary between these piers. It’s going to be some synthesis of the architecture, sculpture and paintings.