Krasnoshchok – Bolnichka

“Bolnichka” is a photographic diary of a Kharkiv artist and maxillofacial surgeon Vladyslav Krasnoshchok. This surrealist narrative, filled with dark medical humour, illustrates the unhealthy state of the post-Soviet medical system in Ukraine: strenuous work in the outdated infrastructure and meagre salaries for medical professionals are disproportionate to the responsibility they bear.

After studying in Kharkiv Medical University in 1997-2002, Vladyslav Krasnoshchok has been actively practicing photography since 2008. He is a participant of the Shilo group since 2010 (together with Sergiy Lebedynskyy, Vadim Trykozand, Oleksiy Sobolev). The artist has a recognizable style of monochrome documentary shots: they are aesthetically transformed using different technical manipulations. Those manipulations result in the anachronistic effect of vague grained surface and form a “screen” that amplifies the experience of contemporaneity. The author is interested in showing the harshness of daily life, choosing the insider’s position, as in the Bolnichka series of shots taken at Kharkivs tate clinical hospital of emergency aid, where Vladyslav has been working for 10 years. In his projects, Vladyslav Krasnoshchok also uses hand-colouring, including tinting anonymous archives of vintage photographs found on Kharkiv flea market. Both methods of appropriation and hand-colouringevolved in Kharkiv photography in the late 1970s, demonstrating the continuity of traditions in the local community. Broadening the fields of photography, the author combines his shots with sculptural objects, and experiments with graphic art, engraving and street art.