The Ukrainian artistic duo Synchrodogs talks about the tension between humanity and nature halfway between reality and sleep life to raise climate crisis awareness
Synchrodogs. The Ukrainian duo moving boundaries and bringing innovation into art and fashion
Synchrodogs is a Ukrainian artistic duo spanning different art disciplines. Decoding the relationship between humans and nature in the Anthropocene is the quest behind the duo’s existence and research. Natural real or artificial environments are a constant in their works and they stand as a key element in their narration of a disposed planet Earth. Not to mention, the human body in its preconditioned, natural nudity is the protagonist too: a sort of abstraction and ambiguity in the original purity of landscapes – as before humans exploited it.
Informed by dreams and meditation as much as by reality, Synchrodogs wonder and collect observations in their everyday – and ‘everynight’ – life to then transpose them into visual images in a multidisciplinary way. They find inspiration from night dreams and the natural landscapes they travel to.
Not to mention, they privilege meditation and hypnagogic hallucinations as their inspirational techniques – those states between wakefulness and sleep when consciousness and subconsciousness merge together. Beauty appears in their artworks in the form of the unconventional: expressed through their style that intervenes in both the art they make and the commercial commissions they work on. Irrationality is therefore what distinguishes their vision: a spark of intuitiveness that searches for the primordiality of human-nature unity.
Ukraine – Synchrodogs’ synergy
Ilaria Sponda: What principles originated and stand behind Synchrodogs? Why did you come together as a duo?
Synchrodogs: «We came together in 2008 to form a duo based on our shared interests, tastes, and perceptions, that is what ‘synchro’ stands for, as we are synchronised and connected on a subconscious level, guessing each other’s thoughts, responding to each other’s signals in correlation. Some things are hard to explain, and this connection between us might be one of those mysteries that we ourselves will be puzzling out till the end of our lives. But on a simplified note, ‘Synchrodogs’ means synchronised movement of one unit, as we never consider ourselves as separate artists, creatively we exist only as a whole. And ‘dogs’ stands for our love for nature – yet another connection that is integral and unalienable from us.
Being both raised in Ukraine and in close contact with nature we are therefore connected. Ukraine is a beautiful country with kind, sincere and deep people. At this moment Ukraine is facing a difficult time as Russia is waging barbarisms and war against democracy, independence, and safety of all the world, which we hope will come together and team up against Russian terrorism in response, as only united the world can win this war and stop the crisis. Our hearts and souls are with Ukraine always».
Synchrodogs remain bound to their homeland, which they have photographed for projects such as Slightly Altered. There we see the Carpathian Mountains in all their beauty although mined by human interventions of exploitation.
The Slightly Altered project by Synchrodogs
How did the need of capturing the tension between man and nature come out? Could you talk a bit about your Slightly Altered project?
«Our work explores the strain between humans and nature, with images of raw, animalistic beauty, which also manage to come across as awkwardly sophisticated. Discovering how far people managed to intrude into the territories that were meant to be wild, we usually stage the ideas acquired through a self-made meditation technique that takes place on the verge between wakefulness and sleep. Observing the new ways the Earth begins to look like as a result of human interventions in the environmental processes, Slightly Altered balances between the real and imagined, drawing the viewer into an unconscious, wild and dream-like world, aiming to inspire people to live a decent life full of respect and responsibility for Planet Earth. Overall, we see that art should be a tool for education, one that comes through both inspiration and the message behind the art itself».
The landscapes they intervene in are not bound to any geographical limitation, as to depict a kind of universal landscape. And the nudes are elements of vulnerability that link the universal landscape to humanity and express their shared impermanence. They construct an ecosystem that shows its fragility, not without calling for awareness, responsibility, and care.
Connectedness to nature, as both a practice of care for the duo and a message to spread to those who look at their art, results in being a ‘passe-partout’ to awareness, mindfulness and ecological behaviour. Art can indeed educate about the current and not-so-new climate crisis and its consequences on the relationship between human beings and landscapes and natural ecosystems. The environments and human bodies in each artwork have a deep connection and are codependent. The human and natural bodies, such as trees, grow wild and with no rules if not those imposed by societal structures.
Slightly Altered seems therefore a pillar of Synchrodogs’ works, a declaration of intents for their long-term practice and mission to visibilize embodied behaviours of environment exploitation. They witness humans’ intrusions in nature yet reflect upon how much it has altered and still alters the environment.
Synchrodogs venturing into the Metaverse
How did you start approaching the Metaverse? What hooked you and how did it serve your artistic mission?
«The world is in a state of constant flux: it is the only thing that does not alter – the fact that we live in constant change. ‘Web3’, ‘digital art’, ‘crypto’, ‘NFTs’ are words that are new today, but that would become usual in ten years, same as touch screen smartphones that came to change obsolete technologies existing before. We are part of those curious people who want to know what new developments are happening in the world in the early stage, as only by being engaged in them can you take part in progress yourself, not just be a distant observer. We are represented on Superrare and Foundation platforms, our artistic practice is diverse and ever-evolving between disciplines to reinforce innovation, and we feel mixed media have a distinct place in the Metaverse and also have a good outlook and perspective of spreading the world and making art more accessible to a wider range of people and bigger communities via Web3 tools».
The Metaverse has indeed presented since its launch a variety of possibilities for artists to take inspiration from and venture into new projects to push art into a different context. Art shares with the Metaverse the ability to shape reality and visions that might be possible in the future or now. As an example, the Metaverse can change the perception of the real world and encourage us to create ways of interacting that are more in harmony with the environment.
Synchrodogs images record an otherwise impermanent nature
What is photography to you? Is it somehow transforming in contemporaneity?
«We started our artistic career as photographers fifteen years ago but soon understood that sticking to only one discipline was not corresponding to our aim, which was to explore different facets of artistic expression. Photography is just one of the mediums we work with, together with land art, installations, mixed media, painting, collage, video, CGI, and AI. For us the starting idea is always the main thing, while the instruments are secondary, as they can vary from one project to another, and they can intersect. Mediums only gives strength and empowerment to know you no limitations: as art is freedom, it is not supposed to be under pressure of any rules concerning the artistic medium. We like perceiving photography as an important part of our practice though. You feel like you are not just catching the moment, you are creating and building it, it would never have appeared if it was not for you taking the lead and constructing the shot due to your vision».
Synchrodogs images record an otherwise impermanent nature. Photography and image making in general both trace and fix visions of the Earth and its landscapes that change with time and need to be preserved not only in memory but also in the day to day for us and future generations.
Synchrodogs
Synchrodogs is Roman Noven and Tania Shcheglova, Ukrainian artistic duo based in NYC working together since 2008. Their interests span what concerns fashion and art photography to question and investigate the relationship between human beings and nature. Through art and technology, they indeed map the visual evidence of the Earth beginning to look like for of its fragile codependence with humans. The natural and the artificial juxtapose in all their works as much as the real and the surreal to construct another world made up of dreams and inspirations to build a life full of respect and responsibility for Planet Earth.
