Art by Vicky Stonebridge. Balnacra Arts

An exhibition of paintings by Vicky Stonebridge, with one by John Mikietyn, and a ceramic sculpture by Allison Weightman, opened at the Scotland Russia Forum’s Edinburgh premises on 12th August. The exhibition was attended By the Russian Consul General, Sergey Krutikov.

The weeklong exhibition accompanied music by Scottish singer and translator, Tommy Beavitt, who sings and has interpreted some of the work of the Russian Bard, Vladimir Vysotsky (1938-1980), in English and Russian. The exhibition responds to the strong themes of faith, conflict and individual freedom, brought to life in Vysotsky’s material.

On the 19th of August the exhibition moved North to the Inchmore Gallery near Inverness, Opening again with an evenings recital of Vysotsky songs.

event photos

press.

artwork

Vladimir Vysotsky is almost universally known and loved in the Russian-speaking world and in many parts of the former Soviet Union.
His more than 1000 songs have been translated into over 60 languages, yet in his lifetime he was never officially released in the USSR, being instead distributed by tape-to-tape copying. Over the course of his short and intensely lived life, he also managed to become a major theatre, TV and film actor.
While he was branded “anti-Soviet”, he was never referred to as a dissident writer and is often thought of as a great Russian patriot. Beginning with the ‘blatnaya pesnya’ (outlaw songs) genre, deriving from prison ballads sung by those returning from the Gulag, his songs branched out to deal with an extremely broad array of themes, in which human freedom and faith are often central.