Visit Elena Chestnykh's Bali Quarantine Studio

While many of us city dwellers were trapped in our tiny apartments or went fleeing to the neighboring suburbs, painter Elena Chestnykh has a COVID journey unlike any other New Yorker. Let’s take a look inside Elena’s fascinating (and accidental) Bali quarantine studio with her stunning and engaging slideshow presentation as well as with a followup Q&A.

So you went to Bali for a 1 month vacation and ended up there for 4 months. Tell us how this came about and how you adapted to your situation.

In March, I went to Bali for a one month vacation. I moved to New York from Russia six years ago and this was my first vacation since then. I wanted to use this vacation time to review, think over, and analyze these past six years in the US and set new goals and dreams. Therefore, this unexpected four-month isolation in Bali turned out to be exactly what I needed.

Most of the tourists left Bali with evacuation flights and the island felt like a quiet village. In my experience, the Bali people are very amiable, prices are affordable, there weren’t many coronavirus cases, and everyone wore a mask. After I realized I’d be there for a while, I set out to find an art supplies store. I was able to find everything I needed. I will admit that I was a little anxious around the uncertainty of when the border would re-open and when I could return home again, but I was far more worried about what was going on in the world –– about my fellow New Yorkers, my friends and relatives, and my parents who live in Russia.

How did your unique Bali experience inform the work you created while there?

At the end of March, my original return flight was canceled and the island was completely quarantined –– my return home became uncertain. So, I turned my hotel room into a studio and started painting watercolors.

My communication with the world was almost entirely reduced to online communication via social media and with my family through Skype and WhatsApp. I spent most of the time completely by myself, occasionally communicating with the few other hotel guests who were also stuck in Bali. I had plenty of time to reflect on my life and listen to my feelings –– a rare opportunity to immerse myself. This unique experience and existence, of course, shaped the work I began to create.

I began by photographing and painting what I had around me, myself. I used those photos as a starting point, but I avoided portrait resemblance –– I was interested in portraying my emotions, moods, and inner experiences. Also, I wrote my thoughts and posted them along with my paintings on Instagram and Facebook.

On the one hand, it was my personal and unique story as an artist who ended up in a hotel room in another country for the duration of quarantine, while on the other hand, it revealed all the universal problems that everyone experienced during that period: anxiety and fears we were each experiencing for both ourselves and our loved ones and the world at large; the feelings of helplessness, frustration, boredom, difficulty in determining one's position or opinion about what is happening in society, attempts to rethink one's identity and professional activity in the rapidly changing world, the search for new ways of self-expression and interaction with others. But the experience also revealed everyone’s attempts and to cope with the situation and find a positive approach; relying on the community, work, art, humor, support of loved ones, and self. This impossibility of direct communication suddenly revealed how important we are to one another and that we define ourselves through communication and interaction.

My Bali series of watercolor paintings illustrate a gaze into oneself in the absence of another's gaze –– the volatility and instability of moods, but also makes attempts at self-acceptance and self-empowerment.

You are interested in discussing the female nude form within your Bali series. Tell us more about this exploration in your paintings.

The naked body in art is often perceived only as eroticism. But for me, the body's image is about humanity and existential experience, vulnerability, and mortality. We are born in this world embodied and the body is an integral part of human existence.

It is human nature to be drawn to looking and seeing someone’s face or looking into their eyes –– this is no different when viewing portraiture. The face and eyes tell us a lot about perceived personality and character. Meanwhile, the body best informs us about one’s existence itself –– about vitality and what it means to be alive. It is something that unites us with everything –– animals, grass, water, wind. I see sexual desire as part of that life energy; as the desire to be myself and to be with others.

Another reason why I paint nudes is because I feel clothing brings in a lot of specific information that is not relevant to what I am communicating. Clothing tells us about epoch, status, style preferences, and lifestyle. I remove clothes as a way to focus on the essentials –– to focus on human vitality and our embodied existence.

You mention that you began painting self portraits and in doing so it caused a shift away from painting faces. Can you tell us more about this shift in process and what it means for you and your work?

I answered this a bit in my previous answer, but this is what I can add.

I remember my first painting of a naked body without a face. It was in 2016. The painting depicts a body on a deserted beach and it resembles a fish or a whale that has washed ashore. This work is about frustration and loss. I painted it spontaneously, in one day, and while working on it, I did not really think much about what it meant. But later, after reflecting on the piece, I realized that, for me, every part of the human body has a metaphorical, symbolic meaning. The head represents the ability to think while the face is the character, personality, individuality. Hands are the ability to make things and legs are the ability to move and be mobile. The genitals are about sex and the torso represents vitality.

In my painting of a selfie with an iPhone, the absence of a face has a different meaning. Here the face is hidden behind the phone. In each work, the lack of a face has various nuances of meaning.

You mention that these paintings started out as pieces of art made in isolation, but as you began to share your experience and paintings on social media, the engagement you were having with your audience brought a new conversation to the work. It brings to light ideas of what isolation really means in an era when we are all always seemingly connected through the internet. Can you tell us more about this experience and how it informs your work and practice?

Yes, since April, I started not only posting my artworks on social media but also writing about my feelings and thoughts behind these paintings. It was not easy. I had to step out of my comfort zone to talk about things we, as a society, don’t usually discuss publicly. Our relationships with our own bodies are very personal and this topic is still considered “taboo”. People find it difficult to talk about their sexuality, health, aging, and appearance. It is difficult to share with others and it is difficult to understand another person's bodily experience. It's often out of our own self-consciousness.

I was surprised by the level of engagement, of how many responses and comments I received. For many, my paintings and texts turned out to be a window into themselves. Some people wrote to me in private messages or by mail. Everybody resonated with something different. Someone has gone through a health crisis, fatal illness, or severe injury, which has changed their attitude towards their bodies and life meaning. Another person grew up in a strict family where there was a negative attitude towards nudity and, therefore, nudity became a manifestation of freedom and self-expression. Then a married couple commissioned me to create a portrait of both of them together –– it was an expression of passion, love, and care for them. Stories like these are touching and I am honored people shared them with me.

You discuss that ink and watercolor, because of their basis in water, are often difficult mediums to control –– they flow and merge in stunning ways that are freeform and loose. You purposefully decide to hang your wet paintings vertically to create drips. Why? What do the drips symbolize?

I hang the painting to remove excess water because I use a lot of it in the process. I don't make drips and splashes on purpose. I just can't avoid them. So I have to accept them. For me, they represent the beauty of the imperfect and the accidental.

Yes, water and paint are difficult to control. Many things happen by chance, are unpredictable. There is beauty in this. It seems to be metaphorical to how it is in life. We cannot control everything. We have to follow the flow, our intuitions, while at the same time be focused and present in the here and now.

You end the slideshow by mentioning you placed one of your paintings within a public space –– on a wall at the beach. What was the result of that journey? What did you learn from placing intimate paintings created in private into the public realm? What did it do to the conversation of the work?

It was an exciting and unusual experience to place my painting in a space that was not meant to display art. Honestly, I have not yet understood what it means exactly. Since my return to the US, I have returned to working on sculptural objects and sometimes, when I need to use harmful chemicals, I take them on the roof of my studio building. There, too, an art object comes in contact and conversation with the urban environment. I like it. The environment adds some new meaning to the artwork. Your question has made me think that I should continue experimenting with such artistic invasions into the city environment.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this special peek into Elena's quarantine creative environment! Even in a virtual age, we encourage all budding collectors to take the time to connect with the artists you love directly.

We want to remind you of our awesome artist messaging feature directly on the Art in Res site––reach out now and foster that creative energy! Have more questions for Elena on her art and practice? Follow up with her directly via our messenger. We know she’ll be thrilled to answer any questions you might have. Ask about a specific painting or about her specific process in general––either approach works!