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Interview with Sergey Ailarov |
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To be one of the best - such is the challenge issued by Sergey Ailarov to himself, a pipemaker who is well-known in the society of the Russian pipesmokers, and since recently – to the fans of pipe of the other countries. There are diverse ways of entering into the world of pipes. Many Dutch and Italian masters got the “admission ticket” back in the pipemaking manufactures, where the future creators of chef-d’oevres performed the reparatory or other minor works for several years. They often worked side-by-side to the famous masters, the grand masters of the pipemaking world… Having gained all the experience, having assimilated the spirit and having learned the rules for pipemaking, the young and middle-aged masters were ready to hit the road of their own. And in Russia – it all goes quite differently. The pipemaking school does not exist, the only manufactory for pipemaking established within the cigarette factory “Yava” is closed long ago, and the masters who worked there are gone in all directions… It is not clear how to make the pipe in the right way and where to take the sound materials. And now, just in the space of five years – a tiny term if measured by historic means, - the brilliant names appear in Russia: Yashtylov, Kharlamov, Revyagin, Ailarov… Their works have a ready sale, their pipes have been smoked with taste, recommended to friends and acquaintances, the masterpieces of these pipemakers are turning into collectibles… What causes such phenomenon? Where in Russia these people are coming from? Long ago the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne established the theory of “salty drops”, according to which the salt brine, when it reaches the critical density, suddenly starts to develop the salt crystals of wondrous beauty. It could be that the Russian Internet served for such “salt brine” for our masters … They got the chance to know how to create pipe, just by making two “clicks” they could get acquainted with the masterpieces of the best world pipemakers, the Russian internet shops that appeared at that time started to offer for sale the works of the Russian masters, and the Internet society of the pipesmokers could see the true value of Russian pipes… The fortunate encounter of a pipe and Sergey Ailarov took place in 2002, when Sergey got his first pipe as a present for his 30th birthday from a friend. - I did like to smoke pipe, though it was not clear enough how to do it in the right way. After brief searches in the Internet I found the forum of pipe fans, I read the forum information and I realized that having just one pipe is not enough for me. So I got another one, but soon I felt that I was not happy with them. The desire to remake them appeared, and then – the desire to make the pipe myself. Thanks to my friends pipesmokers I met Mikhail Revyagin. By that time Revyagin was already a professional pipemaker who produced pipes for sale. He helped Sergey with resource base and taught him the manufacturing processes. At first Sergey was not planning to sell his pipes, this was just a hobby. At some moment Mikhail Revyagin told Sergey that he was doing good job. Mikhail offered Sergey’s pipes to his clients. Soon Sergey and Mikhail brought their pipes for sale to the Internet shop “Tabachok.ru”. - My pipes were sold and I was surprised by this fact, and it is then that I decided to start producing pipes professionally… Everything went on naturally… - Sergey recalls. He bought the necessary machines and tooled his own workroom. The dominant motive in the art of pipemaker Sergey Ailarov is so called “Dutch classic” – the re-thinking of the pipe’s forms. – I think that it is impossible to make pipes as market or fashion requires it… this comes from the inside, it turned out that I am more inclined to classics and its variations…A pipe is a message, it is some kind of a word. It is quite difficult to say something new in the world, I would not take it on, many previous generations of the brilliant people have said it all long before us, the point is to say the old thing in a new way, in your own way… - And what do you think about the freehand style pipes? - It is difficult to draw the line between freehand and classic… In general, there is no such style as freehand. Here it comes to my mind the analogy to the classical music and jazz. As you know, in classical music there are strict mathematical rules of voice-leading, of theme harmonisation, of composition etc. Jazz is different, it usually has a simple theme based on which the improvisation is construed, plus a totally different harmonic foundation. It is the same thing with pipes, there are set basic forms – billiard, bulldog and others, I won’t list them all, the composition of which is well known and is based on certain rules in terms of proportions. I like a lot the expression which I heard from Andrey Shtin – “calligraphy of pipe”. Classic is such calligraphy, that is, the art to express harmony in two simple lines. Classic is always laconic and simple, and therefore it is exquisite and refined in itself. I don’t mean that all classic pipes should be fine and graceful. I talk about the highness of artistry… Brevity is the soul of talent. The pipe of the master is always a rich, succinct expression. Freehand is a fantasy, it has more of emotions; quite often it is as melodious as a verse. It has more lines and elaborated surfaces. But there is no evident boundary lines, as many of those that we now call classic appeared as freehand at first. Not far to seek, let’s recall “blowfish”. And still, I appreciate simplicity above all, not to confuse with primitivity! In this context I like the pipes of Japanese masters, where the imagery thinking is connected to calligraphy of hieroglyph. - The new pipe - how is it born? The important thing for me is to be able to read the content of each piece of briar, to pick the only thing that is there, as in each piece, in my opinion, there is only one pipe which should be found and sold. I usually draw the pipe for quite a long time straight on the wood – sometimes it takes the whole day, up until I am fully satisfied with it. - The process of pipe creation – is it craft or art? The process of making a pipe is first of all art, but there is a lot of craft work too. The craft work is for the purpose of good smoking qualities of pipe, everything that is left is art. The holes should be of the right form, built in line, there should be no gaping between the details, and so on, each school boys knows it. This is a simple matter and requires only certain diligence, the result of which is good smoking quality of pipe. This is not where the pipe is worked out; on the contrary, this is just a beginning, as next the art commences. Sergey is not much into craft works: from the technical point of view his pipes are perfect, the master contributes lots of time and pays a lot of attention to search and creation of the form of the pipe: - I’ve always strived not to repeat myself. Each time I try to look for some new nuances, I work hard on the form, even if I make the simple, as one would think, billiard for the 100th time. The pipe is art for me. I do not mean that I am the artist with capital “A”, it is just that I regard this work as art. In general, my understanding of art is that it is an only-begotten body which incorporate all genres. For example, music and paining have always developed in parallel, or rather not exactly, the art developed, there were periods of classicism, romanticism, impressionism, expressionism and so on, each of these concepts at their own time found their implementation in different genres of art. The most vividly – in music and painting. This is like a brilliant with panes, each of which represents a separate art form; the point is from which perspective to admire it. - Do you smoke your own pipes? - Yes, but not often. - Why? You don't like them? - I do like them, but I don’t have a desire to possess a pipe, I want to make a pipe. It is not of interest to me to make a pipe for myself. It is not of interest to possess a pipe. My possession of pipes comes down to the fact that I make pipes. You see, I have a complex relationship with pipes. - What is the most important for you in pipe? Its form? - The form is a horizontal, and the design of brilliar is a vertical. The whole of them is of importance. However everything starts off with the form. The most important thing is the character, the identity which I try to put into pipe. Not my identity, but its, the pipe’s identity, which should be discovered as it is already in briar. But the key word is character (“obraz” in Russian). If to think of this word in Russian, we say “bezobraznyi”, and that means ugly, disgusting, detestable, all the synonyms are far from being flattering, “bezobrasny” means the one that does not have “obraz”, or character in Russian. The word image (“izobrazhenie”) in Russian has the same base as character (“obraz”). That means that in Russian language the essence is character (“obraz”). The appearance may change but the character remains the same. We always recognize each other in the pictures made 20 years ago, or if the one had a haircut, for example. The appearance change, the character remains. That is why the most difficult and important thing is to create character beyond passing moment which presume variations. I am frequently told that here you might do either way. Yes I might, I agree. But these are just the nuances. - I think that master expresses himself in his pipes. He humanizes them and he creates, basically, his alter ego in pipes. Is it the same thing with you? - Exactly the same. I think that any master always creates his self-portraits, which means that all pipes are self portraits. Just have a look at the pipes of Kharlamov – they all look like Alexey, they are long and slim, and impetuous. And the pipes of Misha Revyagin – they have rondures, they are often of a complex form, it is impossible not to identify them. Any artist is always creating himself, his aesthetic perception of the beauty. I know for sure that my pipes are much like myself. This is the way of self-knowledge for me. I look at my pipes made couple of years ago and I can actually draw certain conclusion on myself. - Can you say that each of your pipes is self-expression, or is there any standardized things? - No, each pipe is unique. Not because this is a principle, but because I cannot work otherwise. I draw each pipe up until I like it, and it is only then that I start to work. It does not make any sense to chase something, as this way you escape from yourself, it does not make sense to lie to yourself. These words of Sergey are proven by the established situation: currently the master makes 5-6 pipes a month, all of them are only made to order, and the orders are maped out for the upcoming year. The pipes of Ailarov are successfully sold out in the United States, Israel and Ukraine. - What is your challenge? - My only goal is to attain mastery, everything else will pass – the market, the prices… If you bones remain, the flesh will grow on them again. I am pretty ambitious man… I just want to be one of the best. I want to be a master… |