Bob Basset

Serhii Petrov (Сергій Петров; born 1976, Kharkiv, Ukraine), known professionally as Bob Basset, is a Ukrainian artist and a co-founder of an art studio under the same name.

The studio creates wearable art pieces such as masks, bags, clutches, bracelets, cases, and more in the techno-romanticism genre.

Artist works primarily with leather, metal, stone, wood, bone, ceramic, and glass.

Over the years, leather masks have become his main object of artistic practice, and they have been used in a variety of arenas.

Bob Basset items have been exhibited all over the world, often as main attributes at Fashion Week shows and at exhibitions and projects, including the International Museum Day.

Collectors from different countries often buy Bob Basset masks for their private collections.

The studio was co-founded in 1989 by Serhii Petrov and his brother, Oleg, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

After Oleg's death in 2011, Serhii Petrov became the face, main artist, and manager of the brand.

From 2013, Bob Basset creates masks for Sid Wilson from the music band Slipknot; the studio also worked with Metallica, Korn, Avril Lavigne, Otep, Tantric, Zayn, British DJ Jungleboi, Dutch DJ R3hab, Beissoul & Einius, Ghost.

Bob Basset created gaming design pieces for the international company Plarium, and a mask for the Iron Custom Motocycles speed record project.

Bob Basset have appeared in the media Vogue International (USA), The New York Times (USA), The New York Times Fashion Magazine (USA), Flaunt (USA), WAD (France), Vice U.K. (UK), Bizarre (UK), INSIDE Artzine (Germany), Trendson magazine (Hong-Kong), Dazed (UK), METCHA, Wired Italia (Italy), and others.

Bob Basset also created personal collections: "Mashrabiya" (2014), "Survivors" (2015), "Calvary" (or "Golgotha") (2016), and "Turnskin" (2019).

From the start, Bob Basset creations were seen as steampunk in style, and later he was referred to as a "steampunk guru."

However, the Petrov brothers considered themselves the founders of their own style: "techno-romanticism."

Over the years, Bob Basset became known as "techno-romanticism pioneer."

Serhii Petrov often describes his studio pieces as "real objects from unreal worlds."

Techno-romanticism doesn't have straightforward rules, so the artist is free to mix different styles, items, and materials.

The style involves idealization of the technology and mechanics and romanticization of the creative process and its result.

Petrov considers everything around him an inspiration for his work, from human emotions to objects and nature.

He is passionate about experimenting with technology and seeking new skills.

He doesn't draw primary sketches, but starts to make an object at once after working with the material and understanding its qualities, because of his belief that "a tool has a great influence on the result."

The manufacture of one mask can take from ten hours to a year.

To create a mask not only esthetically pleasing but also comfortable to wear, Petrov thinks through the ventilation system and sometimes arranges trials to see how long a person can wear it easily.

The studio has a team of four to six assistant designers, but the number of people involved on a certain project depends on the task.

In general, Serhii doesn't let outsiders visit his workshop.

Bob Basset's primary material is leather.

He also uses metal, stone, wood, bone, ceramic, and glass.

The artist's main criteria for leather is that it has an "ethical origin" and is "a product of animal husbandry," not only because all the workshop processes depend on the quality of material, but to show his respect towards the material.

The studio uses leather from many countries, including from Ukraine, Belarus, Italy, and Africa.

Masks have become Bob Basset's specialty.

He makes unique leather masks for use in a number of different fields such as fashion, music, cinema, and so on.

The studio has more than a thousand masks in its portfolio, including masks representing demons, zombies, unicorns, aliens, various animals, and dragons.

Bob Basset created a number of different skull and horse masks, as well as a mask with horns that look like claws.

In 2016, Bob Basset was included in a list of nine revolutionary Ukrainian designers.

The studio's items were highly appraised by the founder of the steampunk style, William Gibson, filmmaker and artist David Lynch, and post-cyberpunk and science fiction author Cory Doctorow.

Bob Basset created masks and other items for the Givenchy brand and stylists Panos Yiapanis and Riccardo Tisci.

The studio also worked with the Ukrainian brands sasha.kanevski and L'UVE (partnering with the designer Valeria Kovalska).

A mask from the Bob Basset collection "Mashrabiya" was used in Hollywood actress Elizabeth Banks' photo shoot.

A number of Bob Basset masks were created for a movie produced by Ridley Scott Associates (RSA Films) and Michael Bay, for the movie Metallica: Through the Never, and were used to promote the American TV show The Last Ship.

Bob Basset masks were used in a number of music videos for bands and artists.