My Sweatshop
The Rector’s Prize for the 2022/2023 academic year was awarded to Ruslan Vysokikh from the Sculpture Studio 1 for My Sweatshop and the subsequent fashion show.
Ruslan Vysokikh: I create my own brand
“People’s unhealthy pursuit of brands has long exceeded reasonable limits. It makes no difference what a piece looks like. All that matters is whether it has a brand on it. I’m creating my own brand, a collection of sandals that is the result of daily work in a sculpture studio and opens the door to its inner sanctum. I am becoming the same as the workers who sew sneakers for big companies and receive the opportunity to continue working in return. The models in the performance Fashion Show become the same workers in their discipline as I am, namely, those who are attempting to forge their own path through life,” says Ruslan Vysokihh of his work.
Rector’s Prize
The rector Maria Topolčanská appreciated the fact that Ruslan Vysokikh stepped out of the installation in the sculpture studio as part of his thesis, thus disrupting the customary format. In her opinion, both the very search for forms in the studio and the involvement of others in the performance are worthy of attention.
“Ruslan Vysokikh has disrupted the established status of the end-of-year final examination. Peek into the room, linger for a while, and move on. In the summer exam he got up and came out of his installation in the sculpture studio, which he had trustingly inhabited with his temporary My Sweatshop. He stood up on high platforms so that wood was the distance between body and floor, resisting walking and precarising movement. It is still walking, summoning more and more people who get up and leave the studio. The corridor is a catwalk, the movement is slowed down, there is more going on than a mere fashion show. From above one can begin to make out what has begun to take shape in the line of defiling bodies. The video captures it in a fragment. Someone on a mobile.
The 2023 Rector’s Prize for end-of-year’s work is deservedly awarded for the attention drawn to other people, for the performance in the school corridor, for Ruslan’s search for form, and for stepping outside from inside the Sculpture Studio. And for drawing people in to do things together at all costs. To display their work together with joy. And to keep walking,” said Maria Topolčanská.