Vadim Fishkin
Artist-in-Residence
Vadim Fishkin graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1986, and now lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Fishkin works with sculptural constructions and multimedia installations. He addresses relationships between language and ideas, and between private and public mental space.
During his residency at the Gardner Museum, Vadim Fishkin collaborated with students from Boston Latin School and Tobin Elementary School on a project titled Objects and Identity. Students toured the Museum with Fishkin, focusing on Isabella Stewart Gardner’s unique gallery installations. Fishkin suggested that the way Gardner exhibited her collection might provide insight into who she was as a person and her values. Following the visit, Fishkin asked the students to create installations in their own homes using things that were important to them and then to photograph the result. Fishkin hoped that through this activity students would gain an understanding of the responsibility artists feel about the choices they make in their work, as well as insight into questions of personal identity.
Fishkin also did a project that involved photosynthesized portraits of Isabella on plant leaves.
Vadim Fishkin’s work is in the collections of the State Russian Museum at St. Petersburg; Inkom Bank, Moscow; and Migros and J.P. Brossard in Zurich, Switzerland.