Light-Pictures

Tchernyi’s current solo exhibition, »Light-Pictures«, foregrounds the role of light across three distinct bodies of work. Although his artistic practice revolves around paper as both medium and material—where paper is not merely a passive carrier of images—light is just as essential to the work, as it only fully unfolds its effect through the interplay of light and paper.

The first body of work comprises relief images in which the motif emerges not through addition but through the precise removal of material. Over the years, Tchernyi has developed his own unique techniques in handling paper. In this cycle, he employs a subtractive approach: using a scalpel, he meticulously carves away layers of paper—cutting, scraping, and abrading to create incisions of varying depths. His images resemble microscopically fine bas-reliefs, consisting of shallow etchings and material reductions that only reveal their imagery when placed against a white backlight. The degree to which the light permeates the paper depends on how many layers the artist has removed at each point. These delicate subtractions determine the extent to which light can later penetrate the material: where the paper is thinner, it glows more intensely, creating gradients and contrasts. Thus, these works only reach their full visual impact through illumination.

It has been said that medieval church windows provided many people with their first experience of narrative images—a kind of early cinema composed of light and glass, with varying degrees of translucency evoking different emotional responses. Like a film brought to life by light projection, stained glass windows conveyed compelling stories—not through moving images, but through a dynamic interplay with changing daylight. Tchernyi’s relief works recall this primordial cinematic experience: they are translucent images—the term translucency (from Latin trans ‘through’ and lux ‘light’) refers to the partial permeability of a material to light—creating a pictorial space that the viewer can enter like a memory or a dream. These images, emerging through the nuanced shadows cast by the sculpted paper reliefs, possess a depth reminiscent of historical paintings in both composition and lighting. His naturalistic landscapes and portraits feature shading that, upon close inspection, verges on abstraction, despite their fundamentally representational nature—complemented in the exhibition space by purely abstract works. Just as stained glass windows once played with transparency, translucency, and opacity, so too does Tchernyi craft a visual narrative through lighting: it is only through illumination that the layers become visible as shadows. Unlike transparency, which allows unfiltered visibility, light here directs attention to what is already present—highlighting both the unique materiality of paper and the sophisticated technical mastery underlying his method. A video at the end of this section documents the creation process of another self-portrait, offering insight into the intricacies of his subtractive technique.

The second body of work consists of five new dioramas, created specifically for this exhibition at GRIMMWELT. These pieces engage with aspects of the Grimm brothers' work, lives, and historical context, while also reflecting on the broader cultural and societal significance of fairy tales. The Grimm Brothers' Children’s and Household Tales have been adapted into numerous media—from Disney films to manga and video games. Their enduring allure lies in their open-ended settings, often happy resolutions, and rich interpretive possibilities—an aspect explored in Tchernyi’s diorama World Literature and Pop Culture. This work stands out in two ways: whereas Tchernyi typically works with white paper and static compositions, this piece features a vibrant, rotating world populated by contemporary fairy tale references. Rapunzel lets down her hair from a wind turbine in a fantastical forest, while a Snow White figure in Disney style kneels beside LEGO dwarves. Despite its dynamic movement, this diorama is constructed from multiple, precisely layered planes—akin to the stage set “flats” in theater design, which use cut-outs and apertures to guide the gaze toward deeper image spaces. The resulting spatial composition achieves an immersive sense of depth, enhanced by sophisticated lighting. Tchernyi draws the viewer’s eye into the scene, evoking an almost infinite visual expanse.

For these dioramas, he has developed a second, additive technique: layering, condensing, and thickening paper to build up forms. He assembles collaged compositions by manually layering individual sheets of handmade paper, constructing three-dimensional tableaux with sculptural depth. The thickness of the layered material determines its opacity—thicker areas appear darker, while thinner sections allow more light to filter through, producing an interplay of illumination and shadow that enhances depth perception. As in his relief works, light plays a crucial role: it not only illuminates the stage-like settings—sometimes as a spotlight, sometimes as a gradient—but also animates the compositions through shadow play. By manipulating the interaction of light and material, Tchernyi imbues these static images with a dynamic presence.

The final part of the exhibition presents Tchernyi’s animated work Into the Light—or rather, as he prefers to call it, a moving image rather than a film. The source material for this piece consists of a digitally reassembled cut-up of a subtractive paper relief, animated using stop-motion techniques. Unlike his dioramas and reliefs, which depict simultaneous visual layers without a linear temporality, this animation unfolds within both a spatial and chronological framework, manifesting as an abstract world of images. The pictorial elements continuously evolve and reconfigure, expanding across two walls of the exhibition’s black box space, immersing the viewer in a dreamlike visual realm. This hypnotic, trance-like sequence is further intensified by an atmospheric soundscape composed by Paul Milmeister.

The exhibition concludes with an archive room, offering insight into the meticulous research and labor-intensive process behind Tchernyi’s dioramas. Beyond extensive conceptual investigations, each diorama is preceded by countless drawings and compositional studies. Similar to film storyboards, these preparatory sketches construct the spatial and narrative architecture of each work. Instead of a linear sequence, the layered compositions create a simultaneous visual narrative, inviting viewers to explore the world anew—again and again. Enjoy your visit.

Author: Anja Lückenkemper