Gerlovina, Rimma. Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin. Still Performances.

MIT List Visual Arts Center, September 5 - October 8, 1989, and Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, November 2 - January 14, 1990. Wraps, exhibition catalog, 40 pages. [Conceptual photography by the Russian photographers, featuring writing on the artists' faces and hands.] Very good + with small imperfections on covers.Summary:

Still Performances: Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin is an exhibition catalogue published by the MIT List Visual Arts Center in 1989. Featuring an essay by John P. Jacob, the 40-page staple-bound publication documents a major collaborative showcase of photographic and sculptural works by the prominent Russian expatriate conceptual artists.

The catalogue and exhibition examine several core thematic and formal dimensions of the duo's practice:

• The Concept of "Still Performance": The project positions the medium of photography as a theatrical, arrested state of conceptual theater. Guided by the artists' philosophy that "our actions are 'still performances' of thoughts," the imagery captures tightly framed, highly staging studio compositions that operate as performance art frozen in time.

• The Body and Face as Canvas: The publication features a series of striking portraits—primarily utilizing Rimma Gerlovina’s expressive, porcelain-skinned face—where human flesh is physically painted with words, visual riddles, palindromes, and geometric diagrams.

• Universal Iconography and Esoterica: The body of work weaves together a complex, intellectually charged matrix of historical symbols. The images heavily incorporate pre-Christian symbology, alchemical formulas, Pythagorean mathematics, numerology, and Christian iconography to explore eternal truths and systems of human knowledge.

• Juxtaposition and Paradox: Through a unified visual vocabulary, the work contrasts the fluid, spiritual nature of the human face against the rigid boundaries of rationality imposed by text, diagrams, and the square photographic frame.

Ultimately, the 1989 volume chronicles a pivotal moment in the Gerlovins' career, capturing a unique hybrid of photography, poetry, mysticism, and Russian Constructivist-influenced body art.