Artist Talk
With
Illya Skuba
By: Amit Kanfi
16 January, 2023
112×168×43 cm
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Ilya Skuba, I am 23 years old, I live in Ukraine in the city of Lviv, here I live and work in my workshop for half a year, the war in the country forced me to move to the rear to continue working. Before that I lived in the city of Akhtyrka, where I worked part-time as a car mechanic.
Where did your passion for art begin?
Around the age of 17 I realized that I wanted to do art, it happened after I saw the work of the artist Koshkosh (in a couple of years we will meet in person). I always knew art existed but didn't pay attention to it, but that day I knew I wanted to and I liked the way I felt when I looked at good art, I hadn't felt that way before. Since that day I started working and experimenting.
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How would you describe your work to someone?
In recent years, I've been making my own works from what I find on the street, and buying the missing components. Now I am in love with industrial and automobile, highway subjects, such as copying car parts from wood, works from car parts, tires, pieces of asphalt
161×134 cm
When you start a new work or project, do you plan what you’re going to create or do you improvise?
Most of the time I have no idea what the end result will be, there are materials I want to put together, and it pushes me towards something. But sometimes I plan what I want to see, it's always different. Improvisation is the best, "appetite comes with food." It's the same with inspiration while working.
Can you highlight some of your influences and discuss how your influences have made an impact on you and your practice?
I’m influenced by the world around me all the time. I worked in a gas station and in a car service, which gave its aesthetics. At the moment I do not understand it, but later, when I begin to analyze, everything becomes clearer.
What are your plans for the remainder of this year?
My plans for the rest of this year are pretty abstract, I plan to go to Kiev and make some provocative street art there, and continue the pace of creating new art in my studio. I would like to export my existing works to Europe, but it's difficult with that, especially since the borders of Ukraine are closed to men. I need to keep creating new work at all costs while in a country at war.