My approach to decorating restaurants and cafes is positive -
let it be cheaper and as rich in associations as possible.
However imaginative the interior of an eating-out establishment is, if grows
old very fast, people become habituated to it, the effects of decoration extinguish.
The restaurant is not dwelling, our rest (if it's possible to say so) there may last
ten minutes to two hours and more. The human brain tires of the strains that colour,
light and shape effects produce. It's similar to a living organism denial of assimilating
superfluous food and drink.
It's a matter of principle for me to use plain, cheap materials, now I dwell upon
shape problems. Which themes are adequate enough to my ideas? Which forms won't tire
the brain, but instil optimist? Which forms are able to maintain the optimistic state
of minds? Like any other artist, I have a single answer -
turn to nature.
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Say, it was necessary to create a surrounding, concentrating a customer's attention while
the person is conversing over his cup of coffee. To achieve this, I employed archaic motives,
the interior of a grotto. Emotions are pleasantly stimulated here both by "natural" effects
(stalactites, a landscape on the background of falling water-drops) and by "artificial"
ones (primitive "furnishing" of a nich, cave painting).
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The light problems turned out solved in the most economical way. Any "civilised"
aids and lamps are absent. All lighting points are concealed behind "rocks"
(have bulbs are fitted there). I consider this decision aesthetically vindicated:
the vibrant warmth of the "cold cave" is produced not owing to breathtaking expensive
effects but through the presence of real lite motives.
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As an example, the table-and-chair set represents playfully the motive of an "erectified
leader" and a "coy woman". These figures, carved in wood, are not only "atmosphere warmers"
but also functional. On the "leader" you can sit, and on the back of the "woman" you can
set the table with wine and broiled veal.
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Symbolic female figures at both sides of the metal door not only remind us of the fertility
and generosity of feminine nature, but also serve to solve the ventilation problem.
Their "frizzy" hair made out of light material (structural sealant) are sort of ventilation
plates controlling the size of the vents for the influx of warm or cold air.
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The extraction vent itself is in the niche with "Dinosaur's skull".
= Every particular place where I've worked possesses certain peculiarity, certain speciality
in problem-solving, but there is a general quality inherent in all my works - the employment
of forms of living nature in their capacity of emotion-stimulants. As regards the economic
aspect of my work, it is conditioned situationally.
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