Sensualis Eugene
was born in 1966 in the USSR in the city of Еysk on the shore of the Sea of Azov. On the territory of today's Russian Federation.
He lived under socialism until 1991 and developed as a freelance artist
.Since his early childhood he attended painting classes. But by the time he was 12, it became clear that he was narrowly confined within the classical art programme, as he constantly sought experimental forms in fine art, sculpture and photography
.In doing so, the artist acknowledged with sincerity the merits of the masters, both of the classical school of painting and the titans of socialist realism, who possessed undeniable world-class talent
.Since there was no wide coverage of global trends in contemporary art in a small provincial town, he had no idea about them
.The artist was also poorly aware of his own country's classics, representatives of late 19th and early 20th century avant-garde art, because the ideological kinks of the CCCPSS party apparatus created an information blockade. And via the internet, humanity learns in many years
.At the age of 16, the young artist, reflecting on the trends in the images he created, noticed what fit into the direction of Multisens
.Eugene Sensualis says: "I never thought what I would create concretely with a biro, a pencil, a cutter or a brush. Enough to touch the surface first. The line led me on by itself. The same natural flight technique was present when carving in stone, modelling in clay or creating installations from machine parts
.I didn't set up the composition, didn't worry about the meaning, didn't shape the image beforehand. My whole task was to just swim freely. Only the feelings worked, the coordination arose from many direct reactions to this state of eternity within me
.So I came up with a term that could briefly formulate what I was doing. I connected the Latin word multum (much) with the English term sensor (sensor). Thus arose the self-determination of the author's direction in the art of multum sensor
.Later I adapted this uncomfortable word, and the definition of multisens on. In the language of my Cossack ancestors who lived in the Zaporozhye steppes of Kievan Rus, the word sens literally means meaning. And when I realised the double value of the multisens - many reactions, many meanings
.And I liked this interpretation of the formula even more because it very accurately conveyed the essence of what happens during the creative act.
"The love of freedom was strongest, but the guy could not realise his multi-sensory images in a province , where socialist realism dominated
.Therefore, he realised that his works could not provide material needs for the foreseeable future
.There were no millionaires in the boy's family, and to be independent and successful, one had to be farsighted about life
."I didn't worry about money. Because I could earn it in other ways, because there was no unemployment at all in the USSR. After graduating from high school, I decided to become a sailor and travel the world. In the process, I always reinvented my multisensory worlds, did a lot of creative work. I organised multisensory exhibitions at home, which my friends liked very much".
After the artist had trained for his second profession, a seaman mechanic, he met his future wife in Еisk, which strongly influenced the further creative destiny.
In 1984, the author of Multisens moved to his wife's city, the port of Mariupol. Where the couple soon find their own home and make plans for the future. Creative life is boiling in Mariupol. At the same time, the appearance of the family changes Eugene's plans and he decides to stay on the shore, having found a job as a mechanic in the local industry.
The artist continues to experiment a lot with graphic images, photography, starts working in the literary field. Creates a mural of glass, fabric, sea stones,.A series of oil paint bas-reliefs appear on sheets of metal specially treated with black lacquer. A series of carved figures on stone with exotic creatures is born. Multisens permeates all directions of art in which the author immerses himself.
At this time, an active spiritual quest begins with the study of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other currents in religion. All this naturally has an impact on the work of Eugene Sensualis.
In 1987, the young artist joined his first major exhibition in the USSR in Crimea, where he showed the public his experimental works - a selection of figurative prints with multi-layered references to the traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the form of three jets from a single stream.
The series was painted with a biro and gouache. The exhibition was competitive, with the author receiving the first cash prize in life and eliciting extremely contradictory reactions from visitors.
"In 1987 I met an artist who looked at my graphic work and explained that I paint in the style of Salvador Dalí. I was very surprised that there is still an artist in the world who lives in my paradigm. Meeting the second Multisens is a gift of fate! And I told a colleague that I wanted to familiarise myself with Dalí's creativity. The next day I was brought an English-language magazine with an article about El Salvador. Unfortunately, I didn't know any language other than Russian, so I couldn't learn the content. But the pictures fascinated and inspired me. I realised that planet Earth has common cultural development trends in areas separated from each other, and assumed that these trends are natural like the growth of a branch upwards with new branches popping up."
In the years described, a period of global change arrived in the USSR, originally perceived by the artist as a positive event.
"The country needed a thoughtful and coordinated modernisation of the system. And from 1987 to 1990 my works reflected the internal expectations of improvement, the transition to a new level with the elimination of problems hindering the development of society. My images were positive, the colours bright.
At that time I immersed myself in the study of Orthodox Christianity, which originated in Byzantium. A large series of oil paintings were presented on glass and wooden boards rounded at the corners with references to the Byzantine school of icon painting.
As time went by, however, it became clear that instead of improvements in my homeland, there had been an uncoordinated, unprepared and shocking transition of the country from the socialist system to the regime of hard capitalism, with the decline of the economy, the collapse of the state and the impoverishment of the people. This caused protest in me. In 1991, the Berlin Wall was built in the centre of my homeland and the border between relatives was drawn. Kievan Rus was split into parts. Ukraine was separated from Russia, but for all the people who lived near me it was a unified territory with a thousand years of history. And I realised once again what the Germans felt when this happened to them in the last century, when the Berlin Wall came into being.
I could no longer go to my father's house without border controls. People separated and gradually started to become more and more hostile.
I had the feeling that it would bring big trouble. In 1991 I had a severe depression.