Lily Shutova – Cave Painting

I’m not an artist. This project is “Cave painting”. I was inspired by the rock art of ancient people. I draw various stories from the life of mankind on stones and leave the stone outside – on some hike or in the middle of the city. If someone finds the stone, he can take it. This is one way toward my goal. The second way – is if no one has found the stone, then there is a chance that it will lie in the ground for hundreds of years. My dream is that in a few hundred years, one of my stones will be found by the archaeologists of the future. I want my stone to lie in a room near the bones of dinosaurs and Neandertals tools, and archaeologists will build theories – what kind of ancient person painted this? The essence of the project is not in the stones themselves but in its philosophy. Sometimes I am tempted to leave some stone for myself, or give it to a friend – all the more so I should leave such a stone outside. The bottom line is to put in the maximum effort, and then let go easily. I have been doing this for two years now, made and left 410 stones. Sometimes people who have found a stone send me very touching feedback. It inspires and gives strength. The stones that have been left can be viewed on my Instagram @pescadero_stones, but physically I can provide those stones that are in my backpack at the time of the application for the exhibition. They are not the best, but not the worst either. I will not specifically draw something special for this exhibition, because “leave what is now” – corresponds to the philosophy of my project.