AMANITA

Alexander Erashov was born in Ermak, Kazakhstan in 1972. His pseudonym is Fly Agaric, or Amanita in Latin. This is an allusion to the invariable black/white/red palette of his artworks, their poignant sarcasm, and their tendency to stand out against a background made up of other artists.

Amanita’s graphic sheets recall an academic treaty about the order of the universe: he forms his own world, creating his encyclopaedia from a mixture of European and Asian cultures and their transformations in the Soviet and post-Soviet spaces.

The artist strives to locate as many images, links, and allusions as possible on a single sheet to provoke the viewer into generating multiple associations. The abundance of detail demands long scrutiny and sequential decoding. Amanita’s sheets are arranged in long series, in which every work is densely filled with characters, objects and ornaments.

Amanita’s faultless craftsmanship stuns and delights viewers; his capacity for outstanding endurance is remindful of me- dieval manuscript illustrators. It takes him many weeks of extremely skilful and patient work to finish every graphic piece.

There are no mistakes or inaccuracies: it almost seems like Amanita follows a very definite plan which has already taken shape in his mind. Civilisation and barbarism, grace and brutality, the fantastic and the real are all interwoven here; it is a world rife with anachronisms and cunning associations.