Maxim Zhestkov

Maxim Zhestkov’s first solo show with Unit London, Simulation Hypothesis, is an immersive exploration of artificial intelligence and virtual reality and the ways in which they are intrinsically linked to our human heritage. Zhestkov, inspired by the writing of Noam Chomsky, seeks to overcome the limitations of language through an exploration of origin and narrative through painting and art.

Zhestkov equally seeks inspiration in pre-historic cultures of cave art and ancient bas-reliefs. He plays with a visuality that precedes written language, from a time in which early humans used clay to make vessels and figurines. Zhestkov’s tools, however, are those of programming and software, deployed to mould these mysterious simulations, in which scale and time are left unaccounted.  In dialogue with machines and algorithms, the artist works with the functions of Artificial Intelligence. Amid the widespread fears that Artificial Intelligence poses a threat to human existence, he hopes that his work will move viewers to think of AI not as an adversary, but as a descendent of human consciousness and as part of the process of creation.

Zhestkov’s work positions even the smallest details as agents of ‘true meaning’: his process is iterative, each step informing the next. Curator and art historian Jiyoon Lee writes, “By engaging with what are seemingly constraints, limitations and restrictions, he explores the concept of inverse thinking, wherein the significance lies not only in what is said but also in what is left unsaid. It is within these boundaries and thought processes that Zhestkov discovers the emergence of sculpture-like after-effects of his creative process and decisions, creating a narrative that resonates with the human condition as the echo and after-glow of previous choices.”

The show takes viewers on a conceptual journey, immersing them first in Clouds of Creation, a large-scale projection that recreates the Big Bang, and then guiding them through micro manifestations of this transformative moment of genesis. Zhestkov’s second large-scale projection Dimensional Dreamscapes evokes the emergence of complex biological structures. In particular, it reflects the transformation of humanity, tracing our journey from cosmic origins to becoming active agents of creation. It suggests that humanity’s desire to create, build, and alter the world is a continuation of primary cosmic energy, presenting the creative process as a perpetual dance between humans and the elements that were spun into existence with the universe’s inception. 

Excerpt from Dr Bergit Arends’ essay, Beautiful Errors:

“In the film Computations, by Maxim Zhestkov, black, identical globules undulate in unison, smoothly draping over organic and geometric shapes. The interstices luminesce in white and blueish light. The ocean of particles appears energised from within, rippling unpredictably, yet constrained within defined spaces. ‘Symmetry. Vertical. Lift. Relief. Mountains. Horizons’: The film’s intertitles indicate abstractions, which become orientations, become formations, become landscapes – a simulacrum of a rocky landscape or rather of an ocean? Computations (2019) is a key reference work for the exhibition ‘Simulation Hypothesis’, in which datapoints interconnect and come into being. Zhestkov not only seeks inspiration in informatics, but in the worlds of biology, geology, and physics. The film speculates about a future in which computational systems are pervasive. To fathom this future, however, we might ask how the simulated forms of Zhestkov’s computational and creative universe relate to the weird ways of our own universe?”

– Dr Bergit Arends, Curator & Fellow at Courtauld Institute of Art