Simferopol's Banksy

Sharik[1] is a street artist based in Simferopol, Crimea, whose drawings can be seen in both Russia and Ukraine. He prefers to remain anonymous, naming himself after a balloon. While he has depicted political figures, he has distanced himself from Kiev’s political upheaval and says he has mixed feelings about Russia’s overtaking the peninsula. Anton Trofimov met with Sharik in his hometown.

Who is “Sharik”? Sharik is the creative effort of a regular, statistically average young guy.

You have chosen to remain anonymous. Why? Anonymity is basically a result of the fact that my activity involves breaking the law. Drawing on a wall is an administrative misdemeanor that can lead to punishment. As long as I remain anonymous, people focus on the content of my drawings rather than on who I am.

Do your parents know what you are up to? Yes, they know, but they don’t approve.

How old is Sharik? I begin counting from his first appearance in the newspaper, in 2008.

So six years old. And what drew you to art? A hard life [said with irony].

What do you paint? As any artist, I attempt to embrace as many social phenomena as possible. Most often I do satirical pieces, or, as they have been dubbed by the mass media, “sharp social criticism.”

Soviet images – cosmonauts, pilots – show up in your paintings... why is this? The USSR has been gone for more than 20 years, what inspires this?

Yes, I remember how they even wrote that I was a “sovok.”[2] But the connection is really in the eye of the beholder. For me, it’s about some sort of boyhood passion for flight, for hooliganism, for heroism. What little boy has not dreamed of being a pilot, of tearing through the sky at terrific speeds atop a rocket...

What does that youthful romanticism have to do with the political elements in your art? I seek to embrace society as fully as possible. There are satirical paintings, including some on political themes.

Let’s talk about your work that shows three presidents, Putin, Lukashenko and Yanukovich, smoking marijuana. Why did you use this image? I won’t speak for the creator of the drawing, but we can certainly think about it together. This painting shows people who look rather similar to the leaders of three friendly countries, and they are smoking a bong together in friendly circumstances; this, in its own way, contains a unifying idea. But today, this gathering is not for everyone... but then any painting is open to various interpretations, it all depends on the viewer. Some will react to this as simply a funny painting, others are ready to analyze each figure in detail. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. I am apolitical, yet many have concluded just the opposite, because I use political figures in my drawings.

What is your favorite painting? My favorite painting is the old captain of a paper boat.

Do the events unfolding now in Crimea inspire you to some form of self-expression? Actually, there have been many times that I wanted to paint something, but, since the minute one paints something, one takes a side, I decided to refrain from depicting current events.

Today there are two “likeable” camps: the vatniki and Coloradans,[3] and the Banderites and fascists. Which one do you belong to? Well, both are equally familiar and equally unacceptable. I have established a 360-degree defensive perimeter and am prepared to throw punches in all directions.

Well, I know that the Maidan launched many artists. People are creating images devoted to Freedom, Europe... does that not inspire you? Why do you not want to be with them? Why the defensive perimeter? I am far more interested in certain global issues. Some people offered to bring me to Kiev. They offered a place to live, paint – just draw! But I didn’t go.

Draw what? Anything. In my opinion, the revolution that took place on Maidan was a nationalist one. And I don’t support nationalists, no matter who they are, Russians or Ukrainians. Now, if it had been a social revolution, that would be something different.

Crimea is now a Russian subject. What does that mean to you? I see this as an historical process. The history of Crimea has seen many similar changes: annexation, de-annexation, it is not any different... the usual
struggle for territory.

But about half say “this is our land,” and that it is now occupied; others also say that “this is our land,” and we have regained it. I have never held nationalistic views. I have blood of three different nations in me, and it is difficult for me to say where my land is.

You think it depends on blood? In my experience, yes, it depends on one’s age and blood, one’s nationality.

Did you vote in the referendum? No.

Why? I feel that representatives of the working class such as myself can have little influence on this
historical process.

Yet people nonetheless participate in political movements, for example Maidan... Yeah, it’s impossible to exist
outside of politics today.

A sign of the times? Politics has become a part of people’s lives.

How does Sharik live? Sharik is a wage slave who survives on a very small salary.

But it turns out he is an idealistic slave, since he didn’t sell himself to Maidan? So long as there is a means for existence, he is an idealist [laughs].

Ok, maybe you can explain what it is that makes Russia and Ukraine so different that people suddenly would start killing one another? I feel they have been brainwashed. Russians and Ukrainians are geographic neighbors, and it is best to be friends with your neighbors. There is the old principle, “divide and conquer,” and someone is dividing these people and somehow profiting from this war. But I feel future historians will have something to say about this.

And what will historians say about Sharik? Most likely nothing. Sharik will dissolve into eternity. But it would be nice if some historian in the distant future, looking back on our hyper-contemporary reality, would refer to one of my cave paintings.

Why cave paintings? Nothing has changed. We look in history textbooks and see the ancient man describing his life in pictures. I am doing the same thing. I am describing current reality. Maybe just not so literally.

Has there been no progress? Are we still just a tribe of anthropoids? Many will not agree with me, but we are the same primates, only with modern technology.

But how could such primitive people have invented this technology? Yes, we have accumulated a huge cultural inheritance from civilization. Yet, despite this, most often the primate in us still overpowers the cultured person.

NOTES

1. A nickname that translates as “balloon.” It is also the name of the dog transformed into a man (and back again) in Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic tale, Heart of a Dog.

2. Sovok – literally “scoop,” and a derogatory term that means a typical Soviet.

3. vatniki = literally, those who wear quilted jackets, i.e. laborers resigned to oppression. The term is used critically, to describe blindly patriotic Russians. Coloradans (колорады) = a similar term for those favoring separatism in Eastern Ukraine who brandish a symbol of Russia’s May 9 victory day, the orange and black ribbon, which is the same colors as the Colorado Beetle – the scourge of local potato farmers. Banderites = derogatory term for Ukrainian nationalists, as followers of Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), a controversial Ukrainian leader, who was ultimately assassinated by the MVD. Many Russians mistakenly say or write “Benderites.”