Doctor Oy. Fantastic Mr. Fox from Art

'I can open handcuffs without a key, I know that it’s quite possible to start a car with wires, and if something doesn’t work, you can always follow one piece of advice ...', our hero tells about the results of the most memorable collaboration. Chrysalis Mag suggests embarking on a 'painted' adventure with Doctor Oy.

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V.S.T.O.L / 2019

Have you ever seen the Seagull at «Песочница», the Cat on Karl Marx street or the Hypnobird on Oktyabrskaya street? So that’s all is Doctor Oy. Previously, we have already made the imagery of his artworks. By the way, it was he who put masks on the trees.

Project F.E.N.G S.H.U.I / graffiti / Karl Marx st, Minsk / 2017

'Amazing Hypnobird' / graffiti / Vulica Brasil / Oktyabr'skaya st, Minsk / 2019

B.O.N / graffiti for «Песочница» / Masherova 11/10 ave, Minsk / 2019

– Please tell me a little about yourself.

– This question reminded me of a conversation I had with a very cool Belarusian artist Anatoly Skororoshenko. Many years ago we were just talking about this: 'Dima, tell me, who are you?'. It seems like such a simple question and I didn’t expect a catch, but no matter what I say, everything is not right and this is total b**t.

I haven't answered this question. And I asked him the same one, the answer was: 'The Universe' — so think of it what you want.

I think that readers themselves will form an opinion by the end of the interview, I’d like that.

A.S.I.A / 2018

– I notice a lot of Asian influence in your artworks. Why the East?

– Ever since school I’ve absolutely loved anime. But I can’t say that it influenced me, I rather just like Asian culture. Hence the fascination with the Japanese atmosphere. I’m still far from the culture of this country, but I’d really like to feel it in Japan itself.

The only Asian country I’ve been in is Nepal. I liked nature, culture, architecture and chaos in which you feel lonely, but this allows you to be as balanced as possible and learn not to be stupid: solve problems very quickly and easily. Adventures were there every day! By the way, I started writing about this journey in the Telegram channel. I did not like the abundance of shit and garbage in the city, specifically in Kathmandu. Seriously, this is a super dusty pit. And in some ways it is incredible and amazing! I really love textured places: such coloring saturates as densely as possible. When I went there, I was absolutely empty, worthless, confused in my own thoughts, without the slightest understanding of what I need right now and how to deal with all this. There was a cotton ball in my head. And I'm not talking about creativity. A trip to Nepal is that trip alone, in which you ask yourself the right questions and give the only possible correct answer to each one of them.

Also, my mother was born in Kazakhstan, but it’s unlikely that this is somehow connected.

L.E.G.H.K.I.E Project / 2020

– I’d like to take this opportunity to ask you about the sensational project L.E.G.H.K.I.E. Is this a new visual language for you or were there any precedents?

– Oh, that was the first experience and to be honest, I was scared even before I did it. But I had to. I wanted to go from an idea to its implementation.

COVID-19 began to spread throughout the country, and through media, people who were not burdened with knowledge of virology and medicine began to play down the problem and talk about seasonal colds. I got really mad. The idea came like this: 'I'll put on masks on the trees' — people will understand that something is happening through a simple association with the lungs. I’ll draw their attention to the problem, make them google what is happening and what can be done to protect themselves and others, what is it all about — coronavirus?

The most difficult thing was to sew masks and choose a location. I spent two days looking for it. And when I realized where I want to hang everything, it became even worse.

As if I was going to give someone a huge slap in the face. After making up my mind about the date, I just needed to hang everything up. It turned out to be quite easy as we 'exposed' it early in the morning: the transport had already begun to walk, but it was still dark.

I don’t know what the reaction of those people who saw it was, but the task was not to collect information, but to be able to conduct a dialogue using the installation.

CV:
Doctor Oy is a Belarusian graphic artist and illustrator, who engaged in conceptual art.

Born in Polesie in the city of Pinsk. Currently lives and works in Minsk (Belarus). Works with graphics, installations and an unlimited variety of visual forms of self-expression.

Doctor Oy masterly works with a line and a spot, setting the dynamics of the image, finds non-trivial, sometimes satirical images to reveal the topic. This gives his work a pronounced individual style.

Education:
He graduated from the Pinsk Art School, received a higher education in Minsk, at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts.

Exhibitions:
2019 — The Museum Night;

2019 — Autumn Salon with Belgazprombank;

2019 — 'Artishard' Art Project as part of Belarus Fashion Week;

2019 — Vulica Brasil;

2020 — Lockdown. Online Exhibition;

2020 — Trainspotting Exhibition

Art Projects & Festivals:
2019 — Red Book Mark Formelle;

2020 — 'The Art of Human Being' International Project;

2019 — Vulica Brasil

Publications:
Сhrysalis Mag: Doctor Oy;

34mag.net: Doctor Oy and his markers;

Mark Formelle has dedicated a new collection to endangered animals;

Telegra.ph: Doctor Oy

Contacts:
Facebook
Instagram
Telegram

All materials are taken from the personal sources of the artist.

Reprinting of material is allowed only with the permission of the publisher.

If you found a mistake or would like to offer an addition to the published materials, please inform us.

K.U.S.T / paper, acrylic marker / 30 х 39 сm / 2019

– Do you have any other plans to try yourself in other forms of art besides graphics?

– It’s already happening! L.E.G.H.K.I.E was the first such project, and recently, quite by accident, a new one fell from the wall. In general, you can understand that I was carried away by conceptualism and installation as a new form of interaction with the audience. It is interesting to express hidden meanings, get the simple from the complex and vice versa, grasp the action, stop it, see the object, image and show it the way you saw it — these are some kind of mathematical problems that I like to solve. Isn’t it cool when you open new horizons and rejoice when people understand you while learning a foreign language?

O.G.U.R.C.Y / marker on paper / 2019

– Do you feel comfortable doing art in Belarus?

– Does it matter where? If I do this, then there are two options: I either oppose someone or something and achieve a certain result, or whine about how f*ck it is to do art in Belarus. What was it like for Ai Weiwei to do contemporary art in China? Belarus is a platform for artists, there are important topics and problems that allow interaction with this environment. I use it as a tool and it doesn’t matter which country you are in if we are not talking about commerce.

F.E.N.G S.H.U.I Project / 2020

– You are a very cool designer. Do you like your job? Or would you rather make money solely with graphics?

– Work for me is a source of constant income, which allows you not to worry about money. In fact, I have two jobs: an official one as a designer with a fixed salary, and I also work on other projects that bring income, but not so often. While working as a designer in the advertising field, I pretty much trained myself and settled on the safest principle of working with customers: I prefer complete control and freedom on my part, but I offer the customer the choice of 'yes' or 'no'. While asking the artist to do something, the client pays not for the implementation of his ideas, but for what the artist offers him at the end. And then he makes the choice to buy or not depending on how close the buyer’s vision is to the one of the artist’s.

– Tell me what you were drawing in school notebooks.

– All kinds of thrillers. Mostly my impressions from movies I’ve watched or books I’ve read. And the drawings certainly captured a lot of space on the pages. The most interesting thing is that almost always I wasn’t stopped from doing that, I just listened to the lecture and painted.

– What is your most memorable collaboration?

– All the coolest collaborations I had were with my dad: both building a house, a trip to Slutsk on New Year's Eve, my puberty, and a beer on the sunset veranda. The result of these collaborations is that I can open handcuffs without a key, I know that it’s quite possible to start a car with wires, and if something doesn’t work out — you can always go to the collective farm and graze the cows.

– Are many of your works inspired by cinema? What are your top 5 films?

– There is not a single work inspired by a particular film, but cinema influences me in one way or another, leaving impressions that, like fuel that triggers inspiration projects.

DISRAPTORS 2.0 Project / 2019

I picked my top 5 that gives interesting experiences:

'Touching the Void' / documentary / Kevin Macdonald / Great Britain, USA / 2003;
'Kurenai no buta' / cartoon / Hayao Miyazaki / Japan / 1992;
'The Lord of the Rings' / trilogy / Peter Jackson / USA, New Zealand / 2001-2003;
'Almost Famous' / movie / Cameron Crowe / USA / 2000;
'Adams æbler' / Anders Thomas Jensen / Denmark, Germany / 2005.

– I know you like Wes Anderson. Which character from his films is closest to you?

– Of the characters of Wes Anderson? I would say Mr. Fox. For me, this is an example of how one should face difficulties and not give up, even if you don’t have your tail!

Mr. Fox — the character from 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' / Wes Anderson / USA, UK / 2003

– You did cool tattoos as part of the 'Artishard' project. Have your sketches ever been turned into real tattoos?

Artishard — «Эш» Magazine Art Project for Belarus Fashion Week / 2019

'Tattoos' for 'Artishard' Art Project / 2019 / photography: Masha Kozhdan

– It seems that Bakey or someone he knew did one with my illustration for his single. They asked me a couple of times if I did tattoos, but I never started. Although I tried the machine and handpoke on a piece of leather. I haven’t thought in this direction yet.