Dmitry Tsvetkov | Ships

What a strange situation: a person is sitting in his home, palm and oranges trees growing around him, the sun is shining, he has a house, caring wife, everything it seems. Then suddenly he leaves it all – takes his ship and sets sail for a distant land. What for? What was lacking in the life of this happy Montenegrin, or Norwegian, or Greek? He is not sailing for trade – besides what could a Montenegrin possibly sell? Goats’ cheese and a bottle of rakija? He is not after any worldly knowledge from foreign lands, neither does he want to conquer someone else’s territory – he has enough trouble dealing with his own. But nonetheless he sails, builds ships, he is brave, fearless, masculine. Sitting at home he was dull, bored, lazy. Out at sea — and he suddenly becomes like Poseidon, seeking out unruly storms! After all, the discovery of America, Australia and others are only «by-products» of travel, the consequences. Sailors sail not in order to gain, conquer, annex or amass something. They enjoy the exploration!
Every morning, looking out from my window I see a new ship. And I imagine that now, instead of tourists with cameras, a crowd of pirates will pile out into the hot sun, hungry for adventure and discovery. New ship — New pirates, new knowledge, speech, language. I do not make anything up, I just look out of the window attentively. It is not so silly, if you stare at the water for a long time, you can see the corpse of your enemy floating past, Laozi knew what he was talking about. I am trying to learn contemplation, to distinguish skin colours and language dialects. Sometimes ‘important guests’ come to my studio – oil magnates, real estate traders, lawyers – accomplished people. And when they look out of my window at the ships, I see in their eyes the desire to drop everything – their careers, ungrateful children, houses, and sail away somewhere into the distance.