In bottles of various shapes, sizes and colors on display with different levels of liquid inside -- different substances such as water, blood, quicksilver and dew -- are the distillations of moments from 18 months of his life.
The bottles make up part of the well-known designer's first exhibition as a contemporary artist. He took black-and-white photos of the memories along the way, so each bottle has a corresponding visual accompaniment. At one bottle, you can see his 15-year-old daughter Marta, his assistant on the project, build a snowman and then see it melt.
"As an artist, I can say she is my best creation," said Yaralov. "To be honest, in the beginning she disturbed me, but little by little she started to support me."
The snowman's leftovers can be seen in an accompanying bottle. Each bottle is sealed and signed once the memory is inside.
If people are made of 70 percent water, then our memories, according to Yaralov, are also made from liquid.
A kind, friendly figure, Yaralov welcomed each visitor to the exhibition's opening, which was held in the smallest exhibition hall in the museum.
The exhibition is small and contained, although it could have been bigger with other types of liquid. However, without being more specific, Yaralov said some themes were eliminated through self-censorship.
Others just failed. Despite attempts, they surprisingly never managed to make any samogon, the traditional and illegal homemade vodka that has been made for centuries.
The exhibition was called "Liquid Memories" but was later changed to "Nastoyashcheyeproshloye" putting the Russian words for "present" and "past" together. "You get a delicious word when you gather them together! It's good to articulate, I think it's a successful choice," said Yaralov.
In the future, Yaralov may expand the exhibition, possibly with other artists, and complete its documentation with videos as well as photographs
"Nastoyashcheyeproshloye" runs until Sunday at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art on Petrovka. 25 Ulitsa Petrovka. Metro Chekhovskaya. Tel. 694-2890, www.mmoma.ru.
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