Scenographer Galya Solodovnikova about favorite books
Wonderzine has long been a regular heading, where girls talk about their favorite outfits and equally beloved cosmetics. Now we are launching a new series in which we will ask journalists, writers, scholars, curators, and anyone else not about their literary preferences and about publications that occupy an important place on their bookshelves. Today our guest is set designer, artist, fashion designer and teacher Galya Solodovnikova, who also supervises the course "Theater Design" BHSAD. As a theater artist, she designed performances in both Russia and Britain - including “The Field” by Pryazhko in “The School of Contemporary Play”, “The Trunk” at the Battersea Art Center in London and the opera “The Golden Cockerel” directed by Serebrennikov at the Bolshoi Theater.
Reading for the sake of reading is an almost impermissible luxury that I can only afford while traveling. I have a little free time, which is not busy with work and professional reading. Enjoyment is to prepare your books for the journey, and then lie on the beach, not to think about anything and read, either for knowledge or for skills. In general, I fly a lot at work, and the simplest thing is to take a small book that fits in hand luggage. Recently, the book of Bunin's stories "Dark Avenues" went with me, because I found an edition that fits in my palm.
I am a terrible fan of books on art and everything related to the visual environment. I am interested in books that can push me to the thought process or have the potential of images that can work. From the trip I bring with me half a box, and in the city where I like to return, Berlin, there are two favorite books in which I can spend a lot of money. They are Dussman and Walther König, both were shown to me by director Kirill Serebrennikov when we worked with him in Berlin, for which he thanks a lot.
There is nothing more pleasant than reading in bed when you can touch paper sheets. One of my favorite bedside books is Tibetan Dream Yoga, dedicated to lucid dreams and managing your thoughts while you sleep. I read a lot in English, in London and the USA I read only in English, but the joy of reading in my native language cannot be overestimated. Of the Russian writers I have a long and complex relationship with Vladimir Sorokin. I generally read in electronic form only for work, scripts or something that comes in the mail. A paper book that can be flipped is important to me. Reading from paper is another way of perception, interaction with the subject, sheet structure, illustrations. Open a book, look through, slow down and think - this is a completely different process.
"Post Drama Theater"
Hans-Thies Lehman
Also one of my bedside books. I studied modern theater in English and imperfectly speak Russian vocabulary and terminology for phenomena that I already know. Nice to read a literate translation. It is good that a publication has finally been published and translated, which adequately speaks of the modern theater and its theory.
"Light Fantastic"
max keller
This is a book for artists who take into account stage lighting in their works. Now I teach at the British Higher School of Design and ordered two copies of this book: for me and the library "British" for my students. Here it is not only shown how different performances are solved, but also technical lighting schemes are drawn in detail. The advantage of this book is that it keeps a balance between technical and artistic.
"Making the Scene"
Oscar G. Brockett, Margaret Mitchell
A very solid book on the history of set design from antiquity to the present day. This is a wonderful edition with illustrations, diagrams, drawings of mechanisms and excellent texts. A detailed and necessary book for me, considering how much I work in the theater. It tells in detail about the theatrical mechanisms of different eras, the device of theatrical scenery - such as mobile waves, methods for creating illusions of water movement, which were manually performed by people behind the scenes.
"Mythogenic love castes"
Pavel Pepperstein
I personally know Pasha and admire him very much as an artist and as a writer. This book came to me in my youth at a time when a mixture of fairy tales and psychedelics seemed like the reality in which you live.
"Snowstorm"
Vladimir Sorokin
With Sorokin's texts, I have a complicated relationship, I can not read all his books. To others I treat very gently. "The Blizzard" seems to me a great work of his, poetic, immersed in the atmosphere and deep state of the reality created by him. I was lucky to meet the author when we were doing a play based on his story "Waves." Sorokin was at the premiere and liked the play very much, which was great praise for me: rarely do writers like the world that artists create without their participation and precise instructions.
"Alice in the Wonderland"
Lewis Carroll
I chose this book because of the publication itself. This is a rare old edition in which the stunning illustrations of the artist Kalinovsky are very beautiful, made in black graphics. This book was presented to me by a friend, director Philip Grigoryan. He found an old edition that inspired him as a child.
"Performance Live Art Since the 60s"
RoseLee Goldberg
Roseley Goldberg has a famous book translated into Russian, which tells about the history of performance from futurism to the present day. This is a different edition, a shorter period is covered here, so the book is very detailed and is illustrated with vivid photos. This book moved with me from London, where I studied set design, and was my reference book while I received my master's degree at Central Saint Martins College of Art.
"Psycho Buildings"
Brian dillon jane rendell
This book also came to me from London, but more recently, I bought it at the Serpentine Gallery. The book presents works of artists in the field of installation art, bordering on architecture. It is full of interesting ideas and techniques that can be inspired when developing solutions for the scene.
"Fashion Design 1800-1940"
This is a wonderful collection with very good otrisovki costumes from different decades until the middle of the XX century. I often work as a costume designer and combine it with set design. By first education, I am a fashion designer. Clearly understanding what epoch you have in the play, you refer to various historical sources for details. Here the cut is very clearly traced, which is important to consider when coming up with a particular costume for the character of the hero.
"The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions"
Kenji kawakami
This is a collection of useless Japanese inventions, where a lot of absurd ideas. I did not find this book of practical application, but when I looked at it, I laughed a lot. There are many absurd inventions like a cat with puppies on the legs for cleaning the house or a special face collar that protects clothes from splashes of noodle broth.
