Tea on the Table is a performance-invitation by artist Oksana Yushko. The conceptual idea of the project is based on an unfinished sketch by the artist and philosopher Eduard Steinberg (1937-2012), a drawing from the past, found in his studio by Oksana, with the inscription "a service". Was it a metaphysical still life painting for dear guests or an abstraction filled with visual symbols and memories? Connectedness with rituals or a tea ceremony in the artist's studio leaves room for the imagination and invites viewers to a heart-to-heart talk. The invitation is a social situation in which each object has its own sign and symbolic meaning. Steinberg composed a whole alphabet of signs (a sphere, a line, a triangle, etc.) going beyond the frame, exploring the metageometry of the space. Tea is also a spatial category, something as abstract as time.
Collective actions create a new reality, showing some familiar things from a different perspective, transforming objects into abstract symbols, filling them with new meanings, visual images and ideas.
