This work began as a conscious decision to engage with the motif of a flower — a theme often dismissed as cliché in contemporary art discourse. By embedding the image within the context of digital-age information overload and assigning it anthropomorphic traits, I aimed to explore the blurred boundaries between organic form, human identity, and visual abstraction.

From Flower to Power 2

In the painting and its title "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" there are many references to the visual background. The essential motive that guided me was contemplation of movement itself. It's the desire to break free from what seems like a spellbound circle, to burst in all directions, as in this painting. It's also the realization that any chosen direction leads to the same ultimate point. Life is seen as movement, where the main meaning lies in the process itself, not just the goal. This is how I clarify my philosophical thinking as an artist, my perspective on my painting. The most important thing to me is the process of painting, a living dialogue with the process of painting. I also contemplate the phenomenon of inert movement/behavior, collective subconscious, my own entanglement in the same cycle of movement. Sometimes, there is a desire to tear oneself out of that cycle and look at the present from the outside, with a critical eye. Life as a journey, movement as meaning and purpose. Each individual is unique, each individual is part of humanity.

  

Where Do We Come From, What Are We, Where Are We Going?

This painting was inspired by the well-known phrase into which I fit a feminist subtext. Objects connected to our everyday lives combine with women’s bodies to exchange their usual functionalism and instrumentality to become building material of equal worth, revealing the deeper functionality of all our endeavors as support for the triumph of the immortal phallocentrism as echoed by the phrase: ‘The king is dead, long live the king’. This is the game driven by the eternal engines of human passions and the struggle for the crown, as old as humanity—revealing the imbalance between feminist theory and practice, how the quest for women’s rights is still subverted to the goals of phallic power, revealing also the space of conflicting historical social forces, and the meaninglessness that hangs in the air of this game. 

The King is Dead

The painting "How My Mother Embroidered Wings on My Back" is my dedication to my mother. It's a self-reflection on my childhood and the difficult relationship with my mother, which has deeply ingrained into my personality and affects me throughout my life. Although the experiences were tough, I believe we decide how to use them in our lives. In my case, it became a support to shape myself as a strong, sensitive, loving, and appreciative mother to my child.

The teacup in the center of the painting is one of the few items that remind me of my childhood with my mother. I gave it life and added wings, which I painted as two sides - different destinies, from which I chose my own. In the distance, like in many of my other paintings, apartment buildings are visible - remnants of Soviet construction. I grew up in such a residential area with my mother. Looking back from a time perspective, even that difficult period now evokes sentiments and a desire to revisit that time in my thoughts. Briefly.

How My Mother Embroidered Wings on My Back

In this piece, I embody my experiences of motherhood—both as a daughter and as a mother myself. The duality of giving and receiving, of nurturing and being nurtured. The provider. The distractor. The one drenched in honey. A vessel carrying a multitude of possible emotions—love intertwined with defense, tenderness laced with tension.

In the background, the architecture of my childhood unfolds—a Soviet-era housing district from a time when my country was still part of the USSR, before its liberation. That landscape is not just physical but ideological, etched into memory and identity.

Corporeality is central to this work. Through the body, I question inherited norms—of form, of behavior, of what it means to mother, to be female, to exist in between.

  

Unconditional Love

The painting “Salome” is inspired by the New Testament narrative, reimagined with a contemporary perspective. The Jewish princess Salome, after performing the famous Dance of the Seven Veils, demands John the Baptist’s head from King Herod as an act of revenge for her mother. This ancient tale fascinates me with its inherent tension, where beauty and brutality intertwine. The delicate female body, capable of enchantment, becomes a lethal weapon and a destructive force.

The central figure in the painting—Salome—dances around a phallic-shaped pole, referencing modern pole dance, while questioning the endless gender struggle for power and dominance. Her body visually splits into multiple forms, which together also create a phallic shape. This perpetual dance symbolizes an ongoing conflict. Salome’s painted body features a tattoo of the Madonna and Child, provoking traditional dogmas and challenging the objectification of the female body.

In the background, residential blocks characteristic of Eastern Europe are compressed into a structure reminiscent of the Tower of Babel. This serves as a nod to the mythological city and humanity’s power through unity. However, this dream collapsed along with the tower’s fall, scattering humankind. The motif of crumbling buildings evokes modern-day destruction, drawing a direct connection to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

  

Salome

In this black-and-white painting cycle, created in 2022, I moved through a period of collective uncertainty and anxiety alongside my community. After the pandemic, the world once again lost its ground — a full-scale war broke out in our neighboring country. These images emerged from that tension, from the suspension between presence and the unknown. Masses of figures and objects merge into cosmic structures — planets, saturated with life and emotional gravity.

  
Simultaneously, my artistic identity began to shift. I started with intimate, interior spaces — a realm that initially felt safe for me as a woman — but gradually moved beyond those personal boundaries. The character I had been shaping expanded, its outlines dispersed, and the imagery soared into the cosmos. What began as a search for self evolved into existential inquiries into being, collective experience, and our connection to the unknown. It is a journey from the inner to the infinite.

Impossible Cosmos

The concept of this contemporary painting centers around the intersection of femininity, modern societal issues, and the human condition. The flower, a traditional symbol of beauty, growth, and femininity, is reimagined in this piece as being constructed from everyday objects and fragmented human bodies. This juxtaposition challenges conventional representations of both women and the world around them. These objects reflect the roles women are often expected to fulfill—balancing domestic duties, work, and personal identity—while simultaneously addressing larger societal issues such as consumerism, environmental degradation, and the commodification of human labor. The incorporation of human body parts speaks to the fragmented experience of womanhood in a world where physical appearance, labor, and emotions are often compartmentalized or objectified. The flower, despite being made of fragmented, everyday components, grows and blooms, suggesting a narrative of resilience and adaptation. It embodies the complex and often conflicting experiences of contemporary women, symbolizing both beauty and struggle, growth and sacrifice, personal identity and societal pressure. By blending the organic form of the flower with the inorganic and the human, this painting becomes a metaphor for the constant negotiation between self, society, and the challenges of our globalized, fragmented world. It invites viewers to reflect on the invisible labor and emotional complexities that shape women’s experiences today, while also touching on broader themes like the environment, industrialization, and human commodification.
  
  

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Monika Furmana

From Flower to Power 2

Where Do We Come From, What Are We, Where Are We Going?

The King is Dead

How My Mother Embroidered Wings on My Back

Unconditional Love

Salome

Impossible Cosmos

From Flower to Power

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