Les Poderviansky
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Les Podervianskyi ( uk, Олександр «Лесь» Сергійович Подерв'янський, Oleksandr "Les'" Serhijovyč Poderv"jans'kyj, ; born 1952 in Kyiv) is a
Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...
painter, poet, playwright and performer. He is most famous for his absurd, highly
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
, and at times obscene short plays. Their average duration is five to fifteen minutes, with some exceptions. Podervianskyi has a
cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
among Kyiv intellectuals.


Cultural background

In 1968 he graduated from the Republican Art School in Kyiv. In 1976 he graduated from the Kyiv Art Institute (specialty: easel and monumental painting,
graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...
, theatrical painting). Podervianskyi wrote most of his works in the Soviet Union in the mid to late 1980s, a time of stagnation in politics and social life—the era of "zastoy" and the time of rapid changes in consciousness. He observed the people in that situation, their reactions and behaviour. And most thoroughly he watched the speech patterns of outsiders and commoners, people from the country. The author places common people in grotesque absurd situations and shows how they would act and speak much the same regardless of what happens. Podervianskyi's works are highly regarded owing to his attention to detail. Many behavioural modes are easily recognizable, and people are able to recognize themselves in the plays. The general absurdity of the situation makes the characters' absurd actions more acceptable, and although certain phrases the author uses are politically incorrect, his humour is generally neutral. Podervianskyi says he draws a lot of his inspiration from the years of his army service. There is also an opinion that his plays are in some way inspired by works of
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
. This writer was favorite also for his friend artist
Nicholas Zalevsky Nicholas Zalevsky (born February 19, 1951, Kiev, Ukraine)  — Ukrainian and American figurative painter. His works have been associated with Magic realism, Photorealism and Surrealism. He started his career as a Soviet Nonconformist A ...
. Member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine since 1980.


Language

Podervianskyi's works have often been criticized because of his use of vulgar unprintable language. They are written mostly in
Surzhyk Surzhyk (, ) refers to a range of mixed sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in certain regions of Ukraine and the neighboring regions of Russia and Moldova. There is no unifying set of characteristics; the term is, according to so ...
and include much swearing and obscenities, which make them appear as if they were composed by an uneducated person. Often it seems that the only reason one would read the works is for their comic impact and to hear creative swearing. But this is not the case. The numerous citations from Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Taoism and dzen buddhism philosophers give the idea of several intellectual layers in his works. Although a number of Podervianskyi's expressions have entered
Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...
slang, he uses crude language to show the flaws and grotesqueness of his characters. Podervianskyi carefully matches up language with his characters. Thus a self-made intellectual spouts scientific-sounding nonsense, while more "straightforward" characters use simple words to express complex things. Because Podervianskyi's works are known primarily in the form of audio recordings of the author's recitals, his voice adds extra dramatic effect to the text.


Works of Les Podervianskyi

* ''Tainstvennij Ambal'' — ''Таінствєнний амбал'' * ''Hamlet'' — ''Гамлєт, або феномен датського кацапізму'' * ''Pavlik Morozov'' — ''Павлік Морозов'' * ''Pizdets'' — ''Піздєц'' * ''Khujnja'' — ''Хуйня'' * ''Katsapy'' — ''Кацапи'' * ''Danko'' — ''Данко'' * ''Tsikavi Doslidy'' — ''Цікаві досліди'' * ''Patsavata Istoriya'' — ''Пацавата історія'' * ''Heroy Nashoho Chasu'' — ''Герой нашого часу'' * ''Vasilisa Yehorovna i Muzhychki'' — ''Васіліса Єгоровна і мужичкі'' * ''Mesto vstrechi izmenit nizzya, blyad'' — ''Місце встрєчі ізмєніть ніззя, блядь'' * ''Ostanovis' mhnovenie tu prjekrasno'' — ''Остановісь мгновєніє ти прєкрсно'' * ''Utopiya'' — ''Утопія'' * ''Snoby'' — ''Сноби'' * ''Khvoroba Ivasyka'' — ''Хвороба Івасика'' * ''Korol Litr'' — ''Король Літр'' * ''Nirvana, or Also Shprekh Zoroaster'' — ''Нірвана, або Альзо Шпрех Заратустра'' * ''Yohy'' — ''Йоги'' * ''Svoboda'' — ''Свобода'' * ''Kazka pro repku abo khuli nje jasno'' — ''Казка про репку або хулі нє ясно'' * ''Vostok'' — ''Восток'' * ''Do khuya masla'' — ''До хуя масла'' * ''Pyat' Khvylyn Na Rozdumy'' — ''П'ять хвилин на роздуми'' * ''Yoko ta Samurai'' — ''Йоко та самураї'' * ''Rukh zhittiia abo Dynamo'' — ''Рух життя або Динамо'' * ''Jean Marais ta yoho druzi'' — ''Жан Маре та його друзі'' * ''Dokhtory'' — ''Дохтори'' * ''Kamyanyi Dovboyob'' — ''Кам'яний довбойоб'' * ''Irzhyk'' — ''Іржик'' * ''Den' kolhospnyka'' — ''День колгоспника'' * ''Mnozhennya v umi, abo plynnist' chasu'' — ''Множення в умі, або плинність часу'' * ''Triasovyi Period'' — ''Тріасовий період'' * ''Diana'' — ''Діана'' * ''Blesk i nishcheta pidarasiv'' — ''Блєск і ніщєта підарасів''


Major works


''Hamlet''

Podervianskyi's ''Hamlet'' is a short, satiric retelling of '' Hamlet'' by William Shakespeare, set in an imaginary Denmark that closely resembles the Soviet Union of the 1980s. A bored and indifferent hero doesn't care about religion, revenge, truth, or politics; all he wants is to get drunk. Eventually he kills everyone, including his father, and he is taken to an asylum by a famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.


''Pavlik Morozov''

A longer (one-hour) play set in the Siberian taiga, where a group of members of the Soviet youth
Pioneer Movement A pioneer movement is an organization for children operated by a communist party. Typically children enter into the organization in elementary school and continue until adolescence. The adolescents then typically join the Young Communist League ...
is led by a
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
official in search of God in order to prove (by not finding God) that God does not exist. Things rapidly change when God's messenger ''Mykola Ostrovsky'' (a reference to Soviet writer Nikolai Ostrovsky), is found in the process. The result of rapid change from
atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
to
paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...
is minimal in terms of human behaviour. The name of the play refers to pioneer Pavlik Morozov, a young Soviet communist "martyr".


''Pizdets''

''(Devoted to artists unions)'' A group of passive art-men live in a freight car, eat state-supplied noodles every day, and do absolutely nothing except pseudo-intellectual chat. They are completely happy inside because they are guaranteed their supply of noodles. They are too scared to leave the car for fear of losing their daily meal. On the contrary, local passers-by (non-art-men) are extremely intrigued by what is happening inside, and seek whatever ways to get into the community. In the end, car brakes are removed, it rolls and crashes offscene.


''Katsapy''

Four Russian tourists enjoy the seaside in mid-level resort city (possibly Feodosiya), speaking with heavy Moscovite pronunciation (known as akanye). Four Ukrainian natives are approaching the city by train, speaking in
Surzhyk Surzhyk (, ) refers to a range of mixed sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in certain regions of Ukraine and the neighboring regions of Russia and Moldova. There is no unifying set of characteristics; the term is, according to so ...
and discussing various things, events and nations with equal enmity. As train arrives to the destination in the last act, the Ukrainians meet Russians and proceed to attack them. As said a

the train described was the suburban one heading from Vladislavovka back to Feodosiya. Katsaps were pictured being in Novyi Svit (everything of that is in Crimea). ''Katsapy'' (sing. '' Katsap'') is a Ukrainian pejorative name for ethnic Russians.


''Danko''

This play is one of the shortest and at the same time one of the most often referred to and cited in unofficial communication and in public critical literature and media
discourse Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. ...
. Its plot is a parody of a classical play by a Soviet writer Maksim Gorky, an idyllic myth of totalitarian Communist ideology. In Gorky's play a hero named Danko leads poor people to the light and happiness through hardships and darkness, burns his own heart to show them the way and dies after this self-sacrifice. Les Podervianskyi's Danko is a rather strange and pathetic fellow, he is also leading a mob of people somewhere but he does not know the way and as he is afraid that people would be angry with his poor directions he burns his heart first, then his liver and finally his kidneys. He dies without any sense and is forgotten by the mob at once.


References


External links


Paintings of Les Podervianskyi

Fan-club in livejournal community, recent photos, links, facts and events



Les Podervyansky
at artofukraine.com
''Tsikavi Doslidy''
Unofficial web site (Ukrainian language)
Author page: Les Podervyansky
at the readers and recommendations website GoodReads
Who is Les Podervianskyi?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Podervianskiy, Les Ukrainian male painters Ukrainian satirists Ukrainian humorists Theatre people from Kyiv Living people Ukrainian dramatists and playwrights Ukrainian male poets Shevchenko State Art School alumni Year of birth missing (living people)