Palaver interview
Palaver, journal of interdisciplinary research housed at the University of North Carolina -- Wilmington, interviews Dmitry Borshch:
Would you call these pieces interdisciplinary? Or are they mixed-media? Or, perhaps in the realm of art, these are the same.
Roughly the same. Technique makes these pictures interdisciplinary, I call them digital cyanotypes. Here is the digital part of my process: I draw on paper, scan, reverse the drawing in Photoshop and print it on acetate, thereby creating a negative suitable for contact printing. Then the traditional cyanotype process begins: coating the paper with a prepared solution and making an exposure in sunlight or under a lamp.
These 'photographs' are based on drawings that belong to a series. Please talk about its title and meaning.
‘Exiled from Truth: Nine Allegories by Dmitry Borshch’ is the title under which some allegorical pictures are collected, possibly more than nine: the series continues to develop. They are united by color, style, and technique, so I view them as a homogeneous collection of drawings. Allegory, drawn or written, is a product of that mind which regards truth as existing-in-absence: it does exist yet is absent from our view. Allegories like mine would not be needed if truth were openly present.
How do you find a subject or theme to draw?
Good, timely themes for a picture are found everywhere -- internet, newspapers, food bills. I make written notes regarding a possible theme on the back of those bills, and usually accompany them with a little sketch. After a period, which could last weeks or months, I go over what was sketched and all the writing. Whatever excites me the most then is developed into a fuller work.