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• 1 2017-04-30T20:40:52-07:00 Handmade Neo-Primitivism 9 Tim Lewis - Final Course Scalar Project plain 2017-05-12T16:58:15-07:00 Almost simultaneous to the publication of Mirskontsa was the publication of Aleksander Shevchenko's manifesto on Neo-Primitivism, Neo-primitivizim. In this similarly handmade text, Shevchenko bridged the gap between the Russian nouveau riche and the longstanding volk by explaining that the core identity of Russian artistic expression was inextricably tied to village life. In its emphasis on modeling lubok printing (or woodcut plates that contained stories approachable by all Russians) and its deterritorialization of the body, Shevchenko's Neo-Primitivism deeply impacted his contemporary artists, especially Larionov, Goncharova, and Malevich. Indeed, the stewing of Neo-Primitvistic (and therefore anti-bourgeois) sentiments had been present in Russia at least since the late 1800's.
  
  Neo-Primitivism focused heavily on a return, restoration, and valorization of the values created and maintained by the peasantry class. Firstly, this aesthetic manifested in the prevalence of zaum poetry as an extension of the Russian folk tradition of riddles. Zaum was a further play on/with words that embodies a necessarily different approach that metropolitan politics: namely, that language functions ubiquitously and is not built through constructed signification-- indeed, all signification is linked to sound. This mystical representation of sound is also a hallmark of Neo-Primitivism inasmuch as Russian folk values allowed for a more robust eroticism. Linked to a sense of shamanistic animality, desire was not restricted to reason as it was in the developing cityscape. Modeled in representations of the feminine (torn between the prostitute and the goddess), this newfound but old-standing desire compelled artists to reinvent the role of the individual and the possibility for new understandings of love.
  
  Neo-Primitivist theoretics are directly tied to anti-Gutenbergianism and are best encountered in the proliferation of handmade books. In returning a necessarily physical labor to the object, the alienation between the artist, poet, and text is resolved and the crude authenticity of a finite text is (re)made apparent to readers. While not easily recognizable in scanned images, many handmade books have different cuts for each page, entirely different covers and page arrangements across different copies, and utilize a wide variety of paper for the actual printing/drawing production.