Alexander Shchurenkov
Alexander Shchurenkov
From The Series Stone-Cold, 2021
MDF, velvet
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist
Alexander Shchurenkov’s series Stone-cold brings together his early interest in crystals as mysterious natural forms, his teenage fascination with esoteric practices, and his current research focus on the contemporary obsession with psychic and physical “enhancement” using alternative medicine, including crystal healing.
More than any other unconventional therapy, crystal healing seems to have an air of mystery, created by the magnetism of the minerals themselves and their mystical promise of connection to the energy flows of nature and the cosmos, plus the many adepts among pop and media celebrities. Without falling for its promises, Alexander Shchurenkov is interested in the mechanisms on which crystal healing and similar practices are based, in particular the ambivalent placebo effect. In The System of Objects, Jean Baudrillard compares the placebo effect to the effect of advertising, which does not follow the “logic of propositions and proofs, but a logic of fables and of the willingness to go along with them.” It is not a pill that works, but the individual’s belief in a system they can trust (“the idea of medicine plus the presence of the physician”). These systems and their contradictions are the object of Shchurenkov’s investigations.
Shchurenkov’s relationship with the image of the crystal is also ambivalent, something which is reflected in the presentation of the works in the exhibition. Objects that look like gems are covered with velvet, similar to the kind used in the funeral business today. Studying the “positive,” therapeutic image of the crystal from a distance, he also picks up on its connection with the “the other side,” in particular associating the shape of crystals with tombstones. In the words of J.G. Ballard, crystals are “neither living nor dead” entities that exist beyond time.
ES