Sky #01

The 64+ project presents a study of visual images of natural forces – the four formative elements of our nature. The 4 elements and 4 states of matter, when cubed, result in 64 — the ultra-perfect number in mathematics, which in turn has a sum of one — the symbol of primal unity and the beginning of all things. The fundamental principle and the irrepressible primordial beginning of today’s science has been reduced to the particle element, the same one that once formed the foundation of ancient natural philosophy. Perhaps it is not accidental that element as a psychology term is closely interwoven with the concept of temperament; in Russian semantics, стихия (element) also conveys this meaning.
The infinite glassiness and depth of the Indian Ocean, or the saturated, discharged air of the atmosphere — the photographs taken by Kustov in different parts of the world become a subject to study and working material for a new project. Fragments of photographs are painstakingly compiled into abstract compositions, creating random shapes and outlines, endlessly reflecting each other as in a kaleidoscope. The artist uses polyhedron geometry as the basis of the composition. At the final stage, the artist puts a magic square of order eight on the back of each photographic image (a mathematical table of eight by eight cells, whose sum of numbers vertically, horizontally, and diagonally is equal to 260, which corresponds to a year in the Tzolkin ritual cycle of the Mayas and the Sacred Calendar of the Aztecs). Thus, each work carries a designated program that is finalized on the viewer