The symbolic compositions reveal, or at least partially reveal the various roles he created and played: the artist, the close associate of the Saint Petersburg New Academy and its leader Timur Novikov (1958–2002), the New York photographer, the student of Shaolin monks and teacher of martial arts in Austria and again the artist...
The sense of the esoteric, the artistic style, the personal experience – these three components are at the heart of each of Vishnyakov's works, establishing their integrity. And, at the same time, they allow the viewer to focus on what is closer and more understandable. Vishnyakov's work offers different ‘keys’ of perception and in each work there are several such keys. These are the symbols of the Old Arcana (the path of knowledge), graphics (classically aesthetic in the form of architectural-figurativetextual constructions), and the author's own emotions (using ‘self’ photographic material, roughness and smudges, expressing the presence of the artist's hand).
It is important to note the sense of skill in the creation of these works achieved with the aid of gum arabic*. While the negatives are illuminated mechanically, they are moved about freely by hand during the application of the emulsion. Photographic detail and expressiveness of gesture confidently serve Vishnyakov's work, filling them with volume and supplementing them with emotion.