If you traveled on the night roads of Russia, then you know this feeling of excruciating pain and emptiness. The windshield is sprayed with spray from the roadway, the wipers are struggling with the work. You know how this happens. You drive with the dipped headlights, and crosses with wreaths along the road suddenly appear out of nowhere. And the car rides in the oncoming lane. The driver turned on the high beam. This light blinds you. And your whole life for a moment hangs between the rays that cut your eyes, and a dusty cross in the dark.

The artist achieves the effect of the almost physical presence of the viewer in the picture with very subtle means. The work is almost monochrome, but a flash of light really dazzles. The rapid movement and conflict of the situation are transmitted by the transverse diagonals of the rays and the trajectory that the wipers leave on the glass.

If you know and understand Russia, its paradoxical, but full of poetic beauty, you will definitely return to Andrei Surnov’s “High beam”.