For all mankind. The theme of self acceptance in the moment of instability. The acceptance of: body, age, gender, your ethnicity and capabilities. I exist. My mission is to find my own way.

Everything has worsened. The old pillars have collapsed, and new ones have not been found. We can’t think of anything better than blaming ourselves for what’s happening, for being in a precarious situation again. And instability, as we know, is the way to development and change. But also to crisis. How to get out of this spiral? Where it is unclear and frightening - to try new things. To suspend the program of destruction in oneself is to stop the program of destruction of everything around: humanity and humanness, the planet and ecology on it, peaceful existence. Understand what our program consists of. Why do we continue to persevere. Can art resist destruction? Is it possible to change consciousness in one, to change the world consciousness? The project is interactive, hybrid, includes a number of graphic works (photography+digital painting), multimedia graphics, video performances.

Moonset

During the process of my work the landscape reminded me of an earthly, but at the same time of an anomalous limited zone. "Roadside Picnic” by Strugatsky brothers. I red that novel when I was a child and it became one of my favourite books. While doing the work, I red the Picnic again and rewatched the Stalker movie by Tarkovsky. I wanted my own rendition, but I certainly loved the concept of the Stalker, where the heroes give up their desires, explaining that no one can fully understand and acknowledge their most intimate dreams.

Roadside Picknick

I wanted to convey the duality of the moment when something what awaits us tomorrow is unknown. It is like "Tomorrow of Schrödinger". The sun has not risen, and until we know it will bring us happiness and peace or it is the last day and something shocking must happen. I link my reflections to a quote from the film "Melancholy" Lars von Trier. But unlike the cinematic story, there is no precise pointing of upcoming events. The landscape in the background is actually a still life, taken from random household items: mirror, jagged paper, plastic container, marbles and night lamp.Absolutely "earthly" household items turn to an alien landscape, if a figure is placed in the frame - she comes, sits and at that moment objects are scaled and become a place and a moment of time. When I was working on this story, I got the idea - we as humans want to be where we've never been. But I decided to highlight some hope for a better world on our own planet.

Greeting The Rising Star

Series: Paint 
2006 – 2008 

I came to the Paint series as a result of following my instincts as a viewer and artist, and in order to satisfy my desire for aesthetic pleasure. All my love for the art of the 19th and early 20th centuries is shown here, as is the decision to examine my inspiration from two different sides — as a creator and as a model, which are firmly connected and yet opposed to each other. On the one hand, they are mutually beneficial, and on the other there is a conflict between these two entities.  

When you unexpectedly get involved in this process of studying the theme of interaction between the author and the model, you gain surprisingly new information about yourself. You release your inner demons. It is amazing to observe how the creative research energy is transformed into sexual energy and back again. Very often in portrait painting a fine line is drawn in the relationship between the creator and the model. I additionally invite a third party, the viewer, for dialogue. I allowed myself for the first time to show myself in public. Far more than that, I allowed the depicted characters to show themselves, and through them also my own self. It is interesting that the taboo around the presentation of the naked body disappears in the case of art. It is not only about physical nudity, but also about the release of trapped sexual energy. The naked body in art has a tremendous power of influence as well as the ability to penetrate the viewer’s subconscious. The artist, by exposing the model’s body in whole or in part in front of the viewer, also releases their own emotions, wishes, and fears. 

At the same time, it was interesting for me to combine two techniques — digital, and painting with “real” materials — and two types of art, namely photography and painting. To reflect the depth, intimacy, and eroticism of the relationship between artist and model, I used a lot of colour. In this series it plays a central role. 

For Degas

Series: Paint 
2006 – 2008

I came to the Paint series as a result of following my instincts as a viewer and artist, and in order to satisfy my desire for aesthetic pleasure. All my love for the art of the 19th and early 20th centuries is shown here, as is the decision to examine my inspiration from two different sides — as a creator and as a model, which are firmly connected and yet opposed to each other. On the one hand, they are mutually beneficial, and on the other there is a conflict between these two entities. 

When you unexpectedly get involved in this process of studying the theme of interaction between the author and the model, you gain surprisingly new information about yourself. You release your inner demons. It is amazing to observe how the creative research energy is transformed into sexual energy and back again. Very often in portrait painting a fine line is drawn in the relationship between the creator and the model. I additionally invite a third party, the viewer, for dialogue. I allowed myself for the first time to show myself in public. Far more than that, I allowed the depicted characters to show themselves, and through them also my own self. It is interesting that the taboo around the presentation of the naked body disappears in the case of art. It is not only about physical nudity, but also about the release of trapped sexual energy. The naked body in art has a tremendous power of influence as well as the ability to penetrate the viewer’s subconscious. The artist, by exposing the model’s body in whole or in part in front of the viewer, also releases their own emotions, wishes, and fears. 

At the same time, it was interesting for me to combine two techniques — digital, and painting with “real” materials — and two types of art, namely photography and painting. To reflect the depth, intimacy, and eroticism of the relationship between artist and model, I used a lot of colour. In this series it plays a central role. 

For Gauguin

Series: Paint 
2006 – 2008 

I came to the Paint series as a result of following my instincts as a viewer and artist, and in order to satisfy my desire for aesthetic pleasure. All my love for the art of the 19th and early 20th centuries is shown here, as is the decision to examine my inspiration from two different sides — as a creator and as a model, which are firmly connected and yet opposed to each other. On the one hand, they are mutually beneficial, and on the other there is a conflict between these two entities. 

When you unexpectedly get involved in this process of studying the theme of interaction between the author and the model, you gain surprisingly new information about yourself. You release your inner demons. It is amazing to observe how the creative research energy is transformed into sexual energy and back again. Very often in portrait painting a fine line is drawn in the relationship between the creator and the model. I additionally invite a third party, the viewer, for dialogue. I allowed myself for the first time to show myself in public. Far more than that, I allowed the depicted characters to show themselves, and through them also my own self. It is interesting that the taboo around the presentation of the naked body disappears in the case of art. It is not only about physical nudity, but also about the release of trapped sexual energy. The naked body in art has a tremendous power of influence as well as the ability to penetrate the viewer’s subconscious. The artist, by exposing the model’s body in whole or in part in front of the viewer, also releases their own emotions, wishes, and fears. 

At the same time, it was interesting for me to combine two techniques — digital, and painting with “real” materials — and two types of art, namely photography and painting. To reflect the depth, intimacy, and eroticism of the relationship between artist and model, I used a lot of colour. In this series it plays a central role. 

For Kahlo. Red

Series: Paint 
2006 – 2008 

I came to the Paint series as a result of following my instincts as a viewer and artist, and in order to satisfy my desire for aesthetic pleasure. All my love for the art of the 19th and early 20th centuries is shown here, as is the decision to examine my inspiration from two different sides — as a creator and as a model, which are firmly connected and yet opposed to each other. On the one hand, they are mutually beneficial, and on the other there is a conflict between these two entities. 

When you unexpectedly get involved in this process of studying the theme of interaction between the author and the model, you gain surprisingly new information about yourself. You release your inner demons. It is amazing to observe how the creative research energy is transformed into sexual energy and back again. Very often in portrait painting a fine line is drawn in the relationship between the creator and the model. I additionally invite a third party, the viewer, for dialogue. I allowed myself for the first time to show myself in public. Far more than that, I allowed the depicted characters to show themselves, and through them also my own self. It is interesting that the taboo around the presentation of the naked body disappears in the case of art. It is not only about physical nudity, but also about the release of trapped sexual energy. The naked body in art has a tremendous power of influence as well as the ability to penetrate the viewer’s subconscious. The artist, by exposing the model’s body in whole or in part in front of the viewer, also releases their own emotions, wishes, and fears.

At the same time, it was interesting for me to combine two techniques — digital, and painting with “real” materials — and two types of art, namely photography and painting. To reflect the depth, intimacy, and eroticism of the relationship between artist and model, I used a lot of colour. In this series it plays a central role. 

For Kahlo. White

For Klimt

For Lempicka

Series: Paint
2006 – 2008 

I came to the Paint series as a result of following my instincts as a viewer and artist, and in order to satisfy my desire for aesthetic pleasure. All my love for the art of the 19th and early 20th centuries is shown here, as is the decision to examine my inspiration from two different sides — as a creator and as a model, which are firmly connected and yet opposed to each other. On the one hand, they are mutually beneficial, and on the other there is a conflict between these two entities. 

When you unexpectedly get involved in this process of studying the theme of interaction between the author and the model, you gain surprisingly new information about yourself. You release your inner demons. It is amazing to observe how the creative research energy is transformed into sexual energy and back again. Very often in portrait painting a fine line is drawn in the relationship between the creator and the model. I additionally invite a third party, the viewer, for dialogue. I allowed myself for the first time to show myself in public. Far more than that, I allowed the depicted characters to show themselves, and through them also my own self. It is interesting that the taboo around the presentation of the naked body disappears in the case of art. It is not only about physical nudity, but also about the release of trapped sexual energy. The naked body in art has a tremendous power of influence as well as the ability to penetrate the viewer’s subconscious. The artist, by exposing the model’s body in whole or in part in front of the viewer, also releases their own emotions, wishes, and fears.

At the same time, it was interesting for me to combine two techniques — digital, and painting with “real” materials — and two types of art, namely photography and painting. To reflect the depth, intimacy, and eroticism of the relationship between artist and model, I used a lot of colour. In this series it plays a central role. 

For Malevich

For Modigliani

For Petrov-Vodkin

For Picasso

For Rousseau

For Schiele

Series: Paint 
2006 – 2008 

I came to the Paint series as a result of following my instincts as a viewer and artist, and in order to satisfy my desire for aesthetic pleasure. All my love for the art of the 19th and early 20th centuries is shown here, as is the decision to examine my inspiration from two different sides — as a creator and as a model, which are firmly connected and yet opposed to each other. On the one hand, they are mutually beneficial, and on the other there is a conflict between these two entities. 

When you unexpectedly get involved in this process of studying the theme of interaction between the author and the model, you gain surprisingly new information about yourself. You release your inner demons. It is amazing to observe how the creative research energy is transformed into sexual energy and back again. Very often in portrait painting a fine line is drawn in the relationship between the creator and the model. I additionally invite a third party, the viewer, for dialogue. I allowed myself for the first time to show myself in public. Far more than that, I allowed the depicted characters to show themselves, and through them also my own self. It is interesting that the taboo around the presentation of the naked body disappears in the case of art. It is not only about physical nudity, but also about the release of trapped sexual energy. The naked body in art has a tremendous power of influence as well as the ability to penetrate the viewer’s subconscious. The artist, by exposing the model’s body in whole or in part in front of the viewer, also releases their own emotions, wishes, and fears.

At the same time, it was interesting for me to combine two techniques — digital, and painting with “real” materials — and two types of art, namely photography and painting. To reflect the depth, intimacy, and eroticism of the relationship between artist and model, I used a lot of colour. In this series it plays a central role.

For Van Gogh

Series: Home Work 
2009

Essay — “The Woman in Contemporary Art”  From a pupil’s paper: “My mother is an artist, but she is constantly busy: she cleans, cooks, washes, sews and looks after us. Meanwhile, the bad guys take over and do all the things she would have loved to have done herself.”

Warhol

Murakami

Malevich

Hirst

Chapman’s

Series: Not A Man’s World 
2006 – 2009

This is not a man’s world. Sometimes it is only understood by women, yet sometimes it interacts very closely with the male world. Until recently, society was divided into these two poles. Now the boundaries are erased in some places, in others they remain clear. Despite the fact that the essence of women is well understood and familiar to me on a deep level, as an artist I try to abstract from this knowledge and imagine that I am seeing a woman for the first time. I want to dissect her subconscious. For this I have taken the liberty of being other women — different in character and fate. In each of them we recognize one of the heroines we know from fairy tales and at the same time we recall the different psyches of women in modern society. 

I transform into them and put on costumes and masks, only following the old universal practice of women who must take on a different role every day of their lives — being a wife or lover, a mother or daughter. As a woman I can be vicious and innocent, strong, and weak, aggressive, and gentle — and that is perfectly fine. Each of the heroines represents one of our feelings: jealousy, envy, drowning, or disappointment, and so on. 

Bluebeard. Jealousy

Series: Not A Man’s World 
2006 – 2009

This is not a man’s world. Sometimes it is only understood by women, yet sometimes it interacts very closely with the male world. Until recently, society was divided into these two poles. Now the boundaries are erased in some places, in others they remain clear. Despite the fact that the essence of women is well understood and familiar to me on a deep level, as an artist I try to abstract from this knowledge and imagine that I am seeing a woman for the first time. I want to dissect her subconscious. For this I have taken the liberty of being other women — different in character and fate. In each of them we recognize one of the heroines we know from fairy tales and at the same time we recall the different psyches of women in modern society.
 
I transform into them and put on costumes and masks, only following the old universal practice of women who must take on a different role every day of their lives — being a wife or lover, a mother or daughter. As a woman I can be vicious and innocent, strong, and weak, aggressive, and gentle — and that is perfectly fine. Each of the heroines represents one of our feelings: jealousy, envy, drowning, or disappointment, and so on. 

Colombina. Renunciation

Series: Not A Man’s World 
2006 – 2009

This is not a man’s world. Sometimes it is only understood by women, yet sometimes it interacts very closely with the male world. Until recently, society was divided into these two poles. Now the boundaries are erased in some places, in others they remain clear. Despite the fact that the essence of women is well understood and familiar to me on a deep level, as an artist I try to abstract from this knowledge and imagine that I am seeing a woman for the first time. I want to dissect her subconscious. For this I have taken the liberty of being other women — different in character and fate. In each of them we recognize one of the heroines we know from fairy tales and at the same time we recall the different psyches of women in modern society.

I transform into them and put on costumes and masks, only following the old universal practice of women who must take on a different role every day of their lives — being a wife or lover, a mother or daughter. As a woman I can be vicious and innocent, strong, and weak, aggressive, and gentle — and that is perfectly fine. Each of the heroines represents one of our feelings: jealousy, envy, drowning, or disappointment, and so on.

Mermaid. Sacrifice

Series: Not A Man’s World 
2006 – 2009

This is not a man’s world. Sometimes it is only understood by women, yet sometimes it interacts very closely with the male world. Until recently, society was divided into these two poles. Now the boundaries are erased in some places, in others they remain clear. Despite the fact that the essence of women is well understood and familiar to me on a deep level, as an artist I try to abstract from this knowledge and imagine that I am seeing a woman for the first time. I want to dissect her subconscious. For this I have taken the liberty of being other women — different in character and fate. In each of them we recognize one of the heroines we know from fairy tales and at the same time we recall the different psyches of women in modern society.

I transform into them and put on costumes and masks, only following the old universal practice of women who must take on a different role every day of their lives — being a wife or lover, a mother or daughter. As a woman I can be vicious and innocent, strong, and weak, aggressive, and gentle — and that is perfectly fine. Each of the heroines represents one of our feelings: jealousy, envy, drowning, or disappointment, and so on. 

Odette. Slavery

The Princess and the Pea. Passion

Red Riding Hood. Justified Cruelty

Rose-Red. Envy

Sleeping Beauty. Secret desires

Snow Maiden. Eternal Expectation

Cinderella. Conclusion

Thumbelina. Disappointment

Snow White. Falling

Hieroglyph of my Body 
2008

This is my body. I take it as it is. My appearance is the key to my fate. If we change our appearance, we question ourselves. We have a distorted perception of the parts of our body and break it down into fragments. Each fragment has a task, but then we forget that together they form a whole. Each of us is predetermined to something unique — all are part of the organism “universe”.

Hieroglyph is the key to the discovery of a new vision, which is not revealed in the struggle against one’s own external appearance, but in the acceptance of it.

The installation was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”, revealing the perfection of human proportions, which can be interpreted as an implicit symbol of the inner symmetry of the human body and, moreover, as the unity of the universe par excellence. 
 

Hieroglyph

Series: Empty Spaces 
2010 – 2011

When I was a small child, I was haunted by a recurring nightmare:

I wander the streets and get lost, looking for my house and cannot find it. All houses seem the same to me, only insignificant details distinguish them from each other — I am searching forever. There is nobody around me. Emptiness. I am alone.

The series Empty Spaces accompanies the person searching for a “comfortable place” — a place they can call their home. In this world full of ambiguity, a person does not want to be a guest, but to claim their own space in the universe for themselves. A new type of person is emerging who loves big cities and hates them at the same time. The city is made up of unnatural matter that has become inseparably connected with the human soul to form a new entity. The bigger a megalopolis is, the stronger its attraction. It is a powerful energy, indeed an impressive artificial intelligence, and without the human being it is just an empty shell. Such an emptiness also exists within us and demands to be filled. And we fill it. With matter. In big, bright, shining cities we often feel cold loneliness and helplessness. Behind the perpetual movement and hurry we discover the emptiness repeatedly. Achievements are illusory, benefits — deceptive. The slight suspicion arises that we should not be here. 

Endlessly distant

Enter

Series: Empty Spaces 
2010 – 2011

When I was a small child, I was haunted by a recurring nightmare: 

I wander the streets and get lost, looking for my house and cannot find it. All houses seem the same to me, only insignificant details distinguish them from each other — I am searching forever. There is nobody around me. Emptiness. I am alone.

The series Empty Spaces accompanies the person searching for a “comfortable place” — a place they can call their home. In this world full of ambiguity, a person does not want to be a guest, but to claim their own space in the universe for themselves. A new type of person is emerging who loves big cities and hates them at the same time. The city is made up of unnatural matter that has become inseparably connected with the human soul to form a new entity. The bigger a megalopolis is, the stronger its attraction. It is a powerful energy, indeed an impressive artificial intelligence, and without the human being it is just an empty shell. Such an emptiness also exists within us and demands to be filled. And we fill it. With matter. In big, bright, shining cities we often feel cold loneliness and helplessness. Behind the perpetual movement and hurry we discover the emptiness repeatedly. Achievements are illusory, benefits — deceptive. The slight suspicion arises that we should not be here. 

Fly!

Glasshouse

Metro

Morning Message

Red Moscow

The Flight. Poezd

The Road

Weighing Up

Series: Light and Heavy 
2014

There is an average city where time has stopped. It is the epitome of an average city on the planet. In different times, a lot of things were created here, a lot of things went under and were rebuilt. Everything here is full of contrasts: the light and the heavy, the rich and the poor, the beautiful and the ugly, and the polarities of the male and the female. We do not see any men in the series. They have dissolved in the surrounding atmosphere. Yet we feel their presence and influence at every turn. The space visualizes everything masculine: the Soviet and post-Soviet architecture, the frozen air, the emptiness, the anonymity and at the same time power and inflexibility.

The woman is the smartest apparition in a place like this and she is striving to leave it. There is no present here, no future and no delight in being a woman. In a city like this, she has a special enormous responsibility. Woman and man must be equal — strong and successful. “Successful” here is to be understood in the classic patriarchal sense of the essence of being female. She is just a beautiful shell to be filled with the “right” and “fitting” substance. Under the pressures of society and Stockholm syndrome, she lives in constant competition for a place next to the man.

Purposeful forward movement and self-representation as a commodity are the rules of the game for modern women in Eastern Europe — rules that are adapted to the times but remain basically the same. The woman does not belong to herself. Exposing herself to the public eye is only one way of attracting attention. Underwear and heels are the attributes of the hurrying woman. They are necessary uniforms as well as being a “sword and shield” — a metaphorical symbol of attack and protection. 

The House on Maxim Gorky Street

Series: Light and Heavy 
2014

There is an average city where time has stopped. It is the epitome of an average city on the planet. In different times, a lot of things were created here, a lot of things went under and were rebuilt. Everything here is full of contrasts: the light and the heavy, the rich and the poor, the beautiful and the ugly, and the polarities of the male and the female. We do not see any men in the series. They have dissolved in the surrounding atmosphere. Yet we feel their presence and influence at every turn. The space visualizes everything masculine: the Soviet and post-Soviet architecture, the frozen air, the emptiness, the anonymity and at the same time power and inflexibility.

The woman is the smartest apparition in a place like this and she is striving to leave it. There is no present here, no future and no delight in being a woman. In a city like this, she has a special enormous responsibility. Woman and man must be equal — strong and successful. “Successful” here is to be understood in the classic patriarchal sense of the essence of being female. She is just a beautiful shell to be filled with the “right” and “fitting” substance. Under the pressures of society and Stockholm syndrome, she lives in constant competition for a place next to the man. 

Purposeful forward movement and self-representation as a commodity are the rules of the game for modern women in Eastern Europe — rules that are adapted to the times but remain basically the same. The woman does not belong to herself. Exposing herself to the public eye is only one way of attracting attention. Underwear and heels are the attributes of the hurrying woman. They are necessary uniforms as well as being a “sword and shield” — a metaphorical symbol of attack and protection. 

Tram Stop

Kuybyshev Square

KIN-UP

GRES. The power station.

Crossing the Red Army Street

Circus

The Race

Series: Light and Heavy 
2014

There is an average city where time has stopped. It is the epitome of an average city on the planet. In different times, a lot of things were created here, a lot of things went under and were rebuilt. Everything here is full of contrasts: the light and the heavy, the rich and the poor, the beautiful and the ugly, and the polarities of the male and the female. We do not see any men in the series. They have dissolved in the surrounding atmosphere. Yet we feel their presence and influence at every turn. The space visualizes everything masculine: the Soviet and post-Soviet architecture, the frozen air, the emptiness, the anonymity and at the same time power and inflexibility.

The woman is the smartest apparition in a place like this and she is striving to leave it. There is no present here, no future and no delight in being a woman. In a city like this, she has a special enormous responsibility. Woman and man must be equal — strong and successful. “Successful” here is to be understood in the classic patriarchal sense of the essence of being female. She is just a beautiful shell to be filled with the “right” and “fitting” substance. Under the pressures of society and Stockholm syndrome, she lives in constant competition for a place next to the man.  

Purposeful forward movement and self-representation as a commodity are the rules of the game for modern women in Eastern Europe — rules that are adapted to the times but remain basically the same. The woman does not belong to herself. Exposing herself to the public eye is only one way of attracting attention. Underwear and heels are the attributes of the hurrying woman. They are necessary uniforms as well as being a “sword and shield” — a metaphorical symbol of attack and protection. 

Revolution Street

Series: Revival 
2014 – 2017

Revival is a series of allegories about the Neo-Renaissance, which speak of the revival of interest in the spiritual, a kind of awakening. Rough materialism is weakening, and humanity is more and more willing to turn to humanism and spiritual progress. This affects individuals’ interests. Self-education and self-discovery in the context of concern for society, for the world, is almost becoming the most important “hobby”. Belief in higher forces, in a higher destiny, is a vital need of the psyche, therefore man seeks new incarnations or tries to transform the existent ones. As mankind keeps returning to this search in the process of history, this cyclicity leads us to new stages of development.

Therefore, this series is based on symbols and metaphors. I take the visual images of the Renaissance and put them together into new constructions that modern man can understand. The baby is in the maternal womb or in the hands of the parents, which for me means that “we are in the hands of our fate”. My connection to Renaissance art is a balance between spirituality and matter.

A special element of the Renaissance is the secular character of culture and its anthropocentrism, the liberation from the influence of the church in the search for individuality and the material world. If we assume that the starting point of this process was the Renaissance, then the finale, or rather the ellipse, is pop culture — the culture of the masses. Karl Jaspers called mass art “a decay in the essence of art”. Mass consumption leads us into a dead end and conflicts with its main purpose. Revival in the sense of rebirth shows the way out of the agenda of consumerism and materialism in the exploration of the self as an element of the holistic mechanism of the universe, the gaining of a new faith. In the past it helped man to survive, but today its task is to raise humanity to a new level of consciousness. 

Receiving Orders. Salome and St. John

Personal Identity

Constant

Entreaty

The Sinner

Series: Repast 
2015 – 2016

Repast is an allegory of life cycles. Cyclicity perfectly characterizes humanity and our perception of time.

The Morning (childhood) means acquisition and accumulation. At the beginning of life we receive a certain foundation and potency both from our family and from the society in which we live. We learn to recognize the beauty around us and to feel it — we use all this for the rest of our lives. Even if “breakfast” is sparse in physical reality, it is often filled to the brim with intangible treasures such as love, fantasy, discoveries, strong impressions and first disappointments. In “breakfast” the abundance of dairy products is symbolic. The milk is associated with purity and virginity. The memories of breast milk are still fresh. The fullness you see is an exaggeration. The yellow of orange juice symbolizes concentrated emotions, the taste of life, sincere joy, and the energy of children. A lemon or an orange signifies the unquenchable thirst for action, knowledge, and discovery.

The Day (youth, adulthood) — creation, destruction, giving and taking. The flesh (the fruit) and the colour red are symbols of life and sacrifice. Youth is a period of expending — some build, others destroy. “Time to throw stones and gather stones” — there is a balance in this. We all make sacrifices and give everything at this point in our lives. More or less. 

The Evening (age, completion) — contemplation, silence. A meditative part. Scarcity of dinner does not mean scarcity of life, or poverty. The table is set for one person. We come alone to the end of our lives, and yet we merge face to face with the divine in this world. It is a time of transition where all matter fades and loses all meaning. I believe our spirit reaches its peak here and we either accept or reject this transition completely. The set of elements depicted is simple: the fish is the symbol of Christ, the potato (the second bread) — the body losing the spirit (steam), the black tea — the drink of the gods and sages, not for simple thirst quenching, but for contemplation. The position of the hands in the triptych refers to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper”, in which the master emphasized the hands. Here they recede into the background and invite the viewer into this or that phase of life — past or future. 

Late Supper

Series: Repast 
2015 – 2016

Repast is an allegory of life cycles. Cyclicity perfectly characterizes humanity and our perception of time.

The Morning (childhood) means acquisition and accumulation. At the beginning of life we receive a certain foundation and potency both from our family and from the society in which we live. We learn to recognize the beauty around us and to feel it — we use all this for the rest of our lives. Even if “breakfast” is sparse in physical reality, it is often filled to the brim with intangible treasures such as love, fantasy, discoveries, strong impressions and first disappointments. In “breakfast” the abundance of dairy products is symbolic. The milk is associated with purity and virginity. The memories of breast milk are still fresh. The fullness you see is an exaggeration. The yellow of orange juice symbolizes concentrated emotions, the taste of life, sincere joy, and the energy of children. A lemon or an orange signifies the unquenchable thirst for action, knowledge, and discovery. 

The Day (youth, adulthood) — creation, destruction, giving and taking. The flesh (the fruit) and the colour red are symbols of life and sacrifice. Youth is a period of expending — some build, others destroy. “Time to throw stones and gather stones” — there is a balance in this. We all make sacrifices and give everything at this point in our lives. More or less.

The Evening (age, completion) — contemplation, silence. A meditative part. Scarcity of dinner does not mean scarcity of life, or poverty. The table is set for one person. We come alone to the end of our lives, and yet we merge face to face with the divine in this world. It is a time of transition where all matter fades and loses all meaning. I believe our spirit reaches its peak here and we either accept or reject this transition completely. The set of elements depicted is simple: the fish is the symbol of Christ, the potato (the second bread) — the body losing the spirit (steam), the black tea — the drink of the gods and sages, not for simple thirst quenching, but for contemplation. The position of the hands in the triptych refers to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper”, in which the master emphasized the hands. Here they recede into the background and invite the viewer into this or that phase of life — past or future. 

The Dinner

Series: Repast 
2015 – 2016

Repast is an allegory of life cycles. Cyclicity perfectly characterizes humanity and our perception of time.

The Morning (childhood) means acquisition and accumulation. At the beginning of life we receive a certain foundation and potency both from our family and from the society in which we live. We learn to recognize the beauty around us and to feel it — we use all this for the rest of our lives. Even if “breakfast” is sparse in physical reality, it is often filled to the brim with intangible treasures such as love, fantasy, discoveries, strong impressions and first disappointments. In “breakfast” the abundance of dairy products is symbolic. The milk is associated with purity and virginity. The memories of breast milk are still fresh. The fullness you see is an exaggeration. The yellow of orange juice symbolizes concentrated emotions, the taste of life, sincere joy, and the energy of children. A lemon or an orange signifies the unquenchable thirst for action, knowledge, and discovery.

The Day (youth, adulthood) — creation, destruction, giving and taking. The flesh (the fruit) and the colour red are symbols of life and sacrifice. Youth is a period of expending — some build, others destroy. “Time to throw stones and gather stones” — there is a balance in this. We all make sacrifices and give everything at this point in our lives. More or less.

The Evening (age, completion) — contemplation, silence. A meditative part. Scarcity of dinner does not mean scarcity of life, or poverty. The table is set for one person. We come alone to the end of our lives, and yet we merge face to face with the divine in this world. It is a time of transition where all matter fades and loses all meaning. I believe our spirit reaches its peak here and we either accept or reject this transition completely. The set of elements depicted is simple: the fish is the symbol of Christ, the potato (the second bread) — the body losing the spirit (steam), the black tea — the drink of the gods and sages, not for simple thirst quenching, but for contemplation. The position of the hands in the triptych refers to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper”, in which the master emphasized the hands. Here they recede into the background and invite the viewer into this or that phase of life — past or future. 

Early Breakfast

Series: Seasons 
2015 – 2017

These are the four seasons as symbols for four basic human needs that are connected to our instincts. As a nursing mother I was able to experience the influence of the instincts and the inner processes involved to the full extent. I felt stopped in my thoughts and actions — that is how great our dependence on the instincts is. The same applies to the hunting instincts of men. Spring and autumn are a pair of opposites, representing the two most important life functions: Give and Take — here in the representation of the nursing mother and the hunter. Summer and winter are the other pair. They mean play and reflection, as well as movement and rest, represented here by the child and the bullfinch. The first three needs, i.e. giving, taking, playing, are complexly linked to the instincts of the animal world and are expressed through the portraits of a woman, a child, and a man. Only the fourth need is not embodied here by man but is represented by a bird as a symbol of the human soul. We experience all four “seasons” in different periods of our life. At the correct time the previously mentioned needs come to the fore one after the other. 

Spring is the beginning and the birth. It is when we are full, when we are driven by the desire to give a part of ourselves, our resources, our energy or our time. In the spring we are full of energy and open our heart, we are moving forward. However nature, with generosity, fills in what was lost. The giving Spring. Time to give. 

Summer is the time of fruit, of physical and mental pleasure. We spoil ourselves like children, rest and wish to be at one with nature. From Latin — laetus, “delighted”. Delighted child. Playing is a basic need. Sitting in the cradle of the vines, in the shape of the womb, it reminds us of Dionysus. The vine is one of the symbols of Christ. I liked the idea of a double symbol — the God of ancient times and the Christian God. The unity of these two images of God points to the inseparability of body and spirit. In “The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music” Friedrich Nietzsche expresses the idea that Dionysus convinces us of the eternal joy of life: we must seek this joy not only in the phenomena of the world, but also behind them. 

Autumn is the time for work and hunting. Since ancient times it has been the time of great preparation for winter, changing the habitual system of life, priorities, and values, harvesting and hunting. It dispels the warmth, the colours and everything else that spring and summer bring. It is time to take. Hunting and gathering belong to our basic needs, whereby the hunter is stereotypically always a man. The drop of blood on his body is an indication of the willingness to sacrifice and take risks. On his clothes there is an imprint of the weeping Mary Magdalene, which is a counterweight here. She mourns for Christ, who in this context signifies the hunter’s sacrifice. The tears here are not real and are more an attribute of the woman, since the tears of a man are still a taboo in our society. He may fight until bloody, but he is not permitted to cry.

Winter is the time of transition and the maintenance of strength. We plan anew and think about the past. Winter is silent. Nature urges us to contemplate and rethink. It is time to remain silent. In many traditions the bullfinch is a divine bird, for example in Japan, where this divinity is attributed to Buddha. In the Christian tradition we know of the bullfinch trying to pull the thorns out of the Saviour’s crown with its beak, while a drop of sacred blood falls on the bird’s chest. From that moment on the bullfinch breast became red-feathered. This association and image come from my childhood — seeing a bullfinch in winter was a magical miracle, because this amazing bird flies to us among the white silence and tranquillity of winter like the red winter sun, which brings good news: soon there will be life, soon there will be sun!

Zima

Series: Seasons 
2015 – 2017

These are the four seasons as symbols for four basic human needs that are connected to our instincts. As a nursing mother I was able to experience the influence of the instincts and the inner processes involved to the full extent. I felt stopped in my thoughts and actions — that is how great our dependence on the instincts is. The same applies to the hunting instincts of men. Spring and autumn are a pair of opposites, representing the two most important life functions: Give and Take — here in the representation of the nursing mother and the hunter. Summer and winter are the other pair. They mean play and reflection, as well as movement and rest, represented here by the child and the bullfinch. The first three needs, i.e. giving, taking, playing, are complexly linked to the instincts of the animal world and are expressed through the portraits of a woman, a child, and a man. Only the fourth need is not embodied here by man but is represented by a bird as a symbol of the human soul. We experience all four “seasons” in different periods of our life. At the correct time the previously mentioned needs come to the fore one after the other. 

Spring is the beginning and the birth. It is when we are full, when we are driven by the desire to give a part of ourselves, our resources, our energy or our time. In the spring we are full of energy and open our heart, we are moving forward. However nature, with generosity, fills in what was lost. The giving Spring. Time to give.

Summer is the time of fruit, of physical and mental pleasure. We spoil ourselves like children, rest and wish to be at one with nature. From Latin — laetus, “delighted”. Delighted child. Playing is a basic need. Sitting in the cradle of the vines, in the shape of the womb, it reminds us of Dionysus. The vine is one of the symbols of Christ. I liked the idea of a double symbol — the God of ancient times and the Christian God. The unity of these two images of God points to the inseparability of body and spirit. In “The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music” Friedrich Nietzsche expresses the idea that Dionysus convinces us of the eternal joy of life: we must seek this joy not only in the phenomena of the world, but also behind them.

Autumn is the time for work and hunting. Since ancient times it has been the time of great preparation for winter, changing the habitual system of life, priorities, and values, harvesting and hunting. It dispels the warmth, the colours and everything else that spring and summer bring. It is time to take. Hunting and gathering belong to our basic needs, whereby the hunter is stereotypically always a man. The drop of blood on his body is an indication of the willingness to sacrifice and take risks. On his clothes there is an imprint of the weeping Mary Magdalene, which is a counterweight here. She mourns for Christ, who in this context signifies the hunter’s sacrifice. The tears here are not real and are more an attribute of the woman, since the tears of a man are still a taboo in our society. He may fight until bloody, but he is not permitted to cry.

Winter is the time of transition and the maintenance of strength. We plan anew and think about the past. Winter is silent. Nature urges us to contemplate and rethink. It is time to remain silent. In many traditions the bullfinch is a divine bird, for example in Japan, where this divinity is attributed to Buddha. In the Christian tradition we know of the bullfinch trying to pull the thorns out of the Saviour’s crown with its beak, while a drop of sacred blood falls on the bird’s chest. From that moment on the bullfinch breast became red-feathered. This association and image come from my childhood — seeing a bullfinch in winter was a magical miracle, because this amazing bird flies to us among the white silence and tranquillity of winter like the red winter sun, which brings good news: soon there will be life, soon there will be sun! 

Fall

Series: Seasons 
2015 – 2017

These are the four seasons as symbols for four basic human needs that are connected to our instincts. As a nursing mother I was able to experience the influence of the instincts and the inner processes involved to the full extent. I felt stopped in my thoughts and actions — that is how great our dependence on the instincts is. The same applies to the hunting instincts of men. Spring and autumn are a pair of opposites, representing the two most important life functions: Give and Take — here in the representation of the nursing mother and the hunter. Summer and winter are the other pair. They mean play and reflection, as well as movement and rest, represented here by the child and the bullfinch. The first three needs, i.e. giving, taking, playing, are complexly linked to the instincts of the animal world and are expressed through the portraits of a woman, a child, and a man. Only the fourth need is not embodied here by man but is represented by a bird as a symbol of the human soul. We experience all four “seasons” in different periods of our life. At the correct time the previously mentioned needs come to the fore one after the other.

Spring is the beginning and the birth. It is when we are full, when we are driven by the desire to give a part of ourselves, our resources, our energy or our time. In the spring we are full of energy and open our heart, we are moving forward. However nature, with generosity, fills in what was lost. The giving Spring. Time to give.

Summer is the time of fruit, of physical and mental pleasure. We spoil ourselves like children, rest and wish to be at one with nature. From Latin — laetus, “delighted”. Delighted child. Playing is a basic need. Sitting in the cradle of the vines, in the shape of the womb, it reminds us of Dionysus. The vine is one of the symbols of Christ. I liked the idea of a double symbol — the God of ancient times and the Christian God. The unity of these two images of God points to the inseparability of body and spirit. In “The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music” Friedrich Nietzsche expresses the idea that Dionysus convinces us of the eternal joy of life: we must seek this joy not only in the phenomena of the world, but also behind them.

Autumn is the time for work and hunting. Since ancient times it has been the time of great preparation for winter, changing the habitual system of life, priorities, and values, harvesting and hunting. It dispels the warmth, the colours and everything else that spring and summer bring. It is time to take. Hunting and gathering belong to our basic needs, whereby the hunter is stereotypically always a man. The drop of blood on his body is an indication of the willingness to sacrifice and take risks. On his clothes there is an imprint of the weeping Mary Magdalene, which is a counterweight here. She mourns for Christ, who in this context signifies the hunter’s sacrifice. The tears here are not real and are more an attribute of the woman, since the tears of a man are still a taboo in our society. He may fight until bloody, but he is not permitted to cry. 

Winter is the time of transition and the maintenance of strength. We plan anew and think about the past. Winter is silent. Nature urges us to contemplate and rethink. It is time to remain silent. In many traditions the bullfinch is a divine bird, for example in Japan, where this divinity is attributed to Buddha. In the Christian tradition we know of the bullfinch trying to pull the thorns out of the Saviour’s crown with its beak, while a drop of sacred blood falls on the bird’s chest. From that moment on the bullfinch breast became red-feathered. This association and image come from my childhood — seeing a bullfinch in winter was a magical miracle, because this amazing bird flies to us among the white silence and tranquillity of winter like the red winter sun, which brings good news: soon there will be life, soon there will be sun! 

Summer

Series: Seasons 
2015 – 2017

These are the four seasons as symbols for four basic human needs that are connected to our instincts. As a nursing mother I was able to experience the influence of the instincts and the inner processes involved to the full extent. I felt stopped in my thoughts and actions — that is how great our dependence on the instincts is. The same applies to the hunting instincts of men. Spring and autumn are a pair of opposites, representing the two most important life functions: Give and Take — here in the representation of the nursing mother and the hunter. Summer and winter are the other pair. They mean play and reflection, as well as movement and rest, represented here by the child and the bullfinch. The first three needs, i.e. giving, taking, playing, are complexly linked to the instincts of the animal world and are expressed through the portraits of a woman, a child, and a man. Only the fourth need is not embodied here by man but is represented by a bird as a symbol of the human soul. We experience all four “seasons” in different periods of our life. At the correct time the previously mentioned needs come to the fore one after the other.

Spring is the beginning and the birth. It is when we are full, when we are driven by the desire to give a part of ourselves, our resources, our energy or our time. In the spring we are full of energy and open our heart, we are moving forward. However nature, with generosity, fills in what was lost. The giving Spring. Time to give. 

Summer is the time of fruit, of physical and mental pleasure. We spoil ourselves like children, rest and wish to be at one with nature. From Latin — laetus, “delighted”. Delighted child. Playing is a basic need. Sitting in the cradle of the vines, in the shape of the womb, it reminds us of Dionysus. The vine is one of the symbols of Christ. I liked the idea of a double symbol — the God of ancient times and the Christian God. The unity of these two images of God points to the inseparability of body and spirit. In “The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music” Friedrich Nietzsche expresses the idea that Dionysus convinces us of the eternal joy of life: we must seek this joy not only in the phenomena of the world, but also behind them.

Autumn is the time for work and hunting. Since ancient times it has been the time of great preparation for winter, changing the habitual system of life, priorities, and values, harvesting and hunting. It dispels the warmth, the colours and everything else that spring and summer bring. It is time to take. Hunting and gathering belong to our basic needs, whereby the hunter is stereotypically always a man. The drop of blood on his body is an indication of the willingness to sacrifice and take risks. On his clothes there is an imprint of the weeping Mary Magdalene, which is a counterweight here. She mourns for Christ, who in this context signifies the hunter’s sacrifice. The tears here are not real and are more an attribute of the woman, since the tears of a man are still a taboo in our society. He may fight until bloody, but he is not permitted to cry. 

Winter is the time of transition and the maintenance of strength. We plan anew and think about the past. Winter is silent. Nature urges us to contemplate and rethink. It is time to remain silent. In many traditions the bullfinch is a divine bird, for example in Japan, where this divinity is attributed to Buddha. In the Christian tradition we know of the bullfinch trying to pull the thorns out of the Saviour’s crown with its beak, while a drop of sacred blood falls on the bird’s chest. From that moment on the bullfinch breast became red-feathered. This association and image come from my childhood — seeing a bullfinch in winter was a magical miracle, because this amazing bird flies to us among the white silence and tranquillity of winter like the red winter sun, which brings good news: soon there will be life, soon there will be sun! 

Vesna

This is an amalgamation of two works by Vermeer. The „maid with milk jar“ and the „young woman reading a letter“, called „maid“ and „letter“ subsequently.

Both paintings show young women in an interior space with a window on the left side, typical for Vermeer. The homage takes two stories, two perspectives so to say. The old subjects from an old master turns to a new meaning. Moreover, there is a media transfer from painting to photography is also ideally suited to Vermeer because it was in Vermeer‘s time that the artist was supposedly interested in camera obscure and optical devices were very much in development.

The two subjects in the Vermeer paintings are very different. The settings is the same but different. Both Vermeer‘s interior are domestic but one is in the kitchen and the other is in the bedroom. The maid performs manual labor whereas the lady performs a rather intellectual deed, reading a letter or a note. The difference is action echoes the difference in occupation and in class, just like the decoration of the setting shows it. Both actions are performed due to an input from the outside. The lady reads the letter because another person wrote it to her. The maid does the milk thing because another person told her to do so. Each of the women is reacting to an exterior impulse. The girl went to get milk. She stops on the landing of the staircase, opposite a window, to read something on a smartphone. As in the Vermeer we do not know what she reads, how she will react or from whom the message is. We also do not know who (or if somebody) told her to get the milk.

The story shows a young woman on her way (possibly her way up, definitely a child becoming an adult), a subject that in and of itself is as important in modern society as any other subject could be. It also crosses cultural boundaries. The moment is the fusion of themes and the associations that are possible thanks to this fusion. The maid is lower class and the young lady is upper class. Nowadays it is not as easily possible from race or from clothing to deduce the social class or social origin of a person.

The girl is colored but her clothes are rather European, especially the down jacket. Her headdress interestingly could be just as well African as European from Vermeer’s own time or form today. The braids are typically African. This alludes to a question of class or social standing. The story leads us to the question about a social class, racial circumstances, colonialism, immigration, adaptation, feminism (milk, motherhood).

The smartphone is a device in the girl‘s hands that allows us to stay connected but that also means dependent. Two people on opposite ends of a wire, receiving orders, causing action. The word „wired“ comes to mind. It implies someone who is a) connected and b) under some form of stress (note: only a tense wire will transmit the signal to the bell). „Wired“ is also the term for technological connectivity which is omnipresent in the 21st century and which has in some ways enslaved us socially but also in the work place. This is not unlike the fashion of writing letters in the 18th century that several Vermeer paintings refer to. Now we are writing WhatsApp and SMS messages or reading emails that gets us at any moment and interrupts what we are doing just like the girl on the picture interrupts her way back home to check a message.

The title came spontaneously and fortunately. “Besrat” – this is a real name of the girl from the portrait. The fact that Besrat means Good News. It couldn’t be a better coincidence. Not only for the SMS message she reads but also because “good news” has a relation to Christianity for “Evangelium” means good news. It is the good news of Christ. Meaning that young African women are actually good news. This is an economical reality in third world aid. They say that investing in the health and education of young African women in Africa is the investment with the highest return and the best long-term effect on the world possible. Exactly the same value, in the future will be the investing in the integration and education of immigrant youth here in Europe. 

Besrat – Good News

Series: Zweiraumwohnung
2017 – 2020 

 A Zweiraumwohnung is not just the most common type of city home; it also represents a coordinate system for a typical urbanite. I spent more than half my life in two-room apartments. The world is becoming more open for doing business, communicating, traveling, and establishing connections, and yet our life is becoming more and more secluded. It seems compressed to the size of a small apartment. The body’s range of movement is limited to one or two rooms and the path between them. Each day starts with a certain ritualized sequence of actions. The mind simultaneously solves global world political conflicts, participates in information and real wars, experiences economic crises, travels around the world, communicates with people from all over the world, and processes a ton of information about people and places we do not know. It goes around the world and communicates with others, regardless of physical distance. We often participate passively in the life of the world community, and our participation has no geographical limitations, unlike us. It is precisely this dissonance that increasingly divides us into two separate spaces — the mind and the body. 

The photographs which formed the basis for every single work of the project were taken in either one or the other corner of my apartment, where I spend most of my daily life. In the video for the project, you can observe all the daily and inconspicuous activities of mine, which even I would say appear as if seen through the window of the house opposite. Listen to the latest news in the background after all the hustle and bustle, or a short five-minute meditation track! Like an astronaut on a spaceship, I wake up and start my daily routine: I work, get my chores done, look after my family, and then I am out on my spacewalk into orbit on the Internet, connecting to the rest of the world and able to calm down while absorbing information, watching the lives of the others, thinking about serious social issues. It is so trivial and so strange at the same time. Thirty years ago, the world was a completely different place. This period seems a turning point.

Sunday Morning

Series: Zweiraumwohnung 
2017 – 2020  

A Zweiraumwohnung is not just the most common type of city home; it also represents a coordinate system for a typical urbanite. I spent more than half my life in two-room apartments. The world is becoming more open for doing business, communicating, traveling, and establishing connections, and yet our life is becoming more and more secluded. It seems compressed to the size of a small apartment. The body’s range of movement is limited to one or two rooms and the path between them. Each day starts with a certain ritualized sequence of actions. The mind simultaneously solves global world political conflicts, participates in information and real wars, experiences economic crises, travels around the world, communicates with people from all over the world, and processes a ton of information about people and places we do not know. It goes around the world and communicates with others, regardless of physical distance. We often participate passively in the life of the world community, and our participation has no geographical limitations, unlike us. It is precisely this dissonance that increasingly divides us into two separate spaces — the mind and the body.

The photographs which formed the basis for every single work of the project were taken in either one or the other corner of my apartment, where I spend most of my daily life. In the video for the project, you can observe all the daily and inconspicuous activities of mine, which even I would say appear as if seen through the window of the house opposite. Listen to the latest news in the background after all the hustle and bustle, or a short five-minute meditation track! Like an astronaut on a spaceship, I wake up and start my daily routine: I work, get my chores done, look after my family, and then I am out on my spacewalk into orbit on the Internet, connecting to the rest of the world and able to calm down while absorbing information, watching the lives of the others, thinking about serious social issues. It is so trivial and so strange at the same time. Thirty years ago, the world was a completely different place. This period seems a turning point. 

11 Milliliter per Minute

Revelation of Venus

Series: Zweiraumwohnung 
2017 – 2020  
 
A Zweiraumwohnung is not just the most common type of city home; it also represents a coordinate system for a typical urbanite. I spent more than half my life in two-room apartments. The world is becoming more open for doing business, communicating, traveling, and establishing connections, and yet our life is becoming more and more secluded. It seems compressed to the size of a small apartment. The body’s range of movement is limited to one or two rooms and the path between them. Each day starts with a certain ritualized sequence of actions. The mind simultaneously solves global world political conflicts, participates in information and real wars, experiences economic crises, travels around the world, communicates with people from all over the world, and processes a ton of information about people and places we do not know. It goes around the world and communicates with others, regardless of physical distance. We often participate passively in the life of the world community, and our participation has no geographical limitations, unlike us. It is precisely this dissonance that increasingly divides us into two separate spaces — the mind and the body.

The photographs which formed the basis for every single work of the project were taken in either one or the other corner of my apartment, where I spend most of my daily life. In the video for the project, you can observe all the daily and inconspicuous activities of mine, which even I would say appear as if seen through the window of the house opposite. Listen to the latest news in the background after all the hustle and bustle, or a short five-minute meditation track! Like an astronaut on a spaceship, I wake up and start my daily routine: I work, get my chores done, look after my family, and then I am out on my spacewalk into orbit on the Internet, connecting to the rest of the world and able to calm down while absorbing information, watching the lives of the others, thinking about serious social issues. It is so trivial and so strange at the same time. Thirty years ago, the world was a completely different place. This period seems a turning point. 

Kitchen Story

Spaceless

Nooning

Series: Dream Walkers 
2019 – 2021 
  
Fairy-tales are a constant ingredient of all cultures. They inform and describe a culture because, among other things, fairy-tales mirror social norms and solidify those norms by virtue of their distribution. This distribution is primarily by way of oral tradition. The Grimm Brothers have collected fairy-tales from various sources in order to consolidate them in writing. This is how Grimm’s fairy-tales have become a literary and cultural point of reference in Europe and in countries of European influence. 

One thing connects the Grimm tales with those of other cultures and thus indicates the existence of universally felt norms. I mean those archetypical narrative and material elements, that often figure in dreams as well, which are used for personification of good and evil or for indicating a transformation, like the good or the bad fairy or the apple that takes on a catalytic function in a transformative process. 

Like any good story, when it is told well, fairy-tales incite images of their narratives in our heads. They stimulate the imagination and are supposed to sharpen our judgment through their exemplar character. Katerina Belkina allowed herself to be inspired by the tales to create her interpretation of them. Her images, as far as their permanence is concerned, are to be situated between the written and the oral tradition. On one hand they obviously visualize the story, on the other they do not limit the viewer in his / her imagination. The images continue in one’s mind and one can thus become a Dream Walker. In a time when cultural identity is taken very seriously, it is important to find common ground and roots. This is what Belkina’s works allow and what makes them historically and in current discourse so highly relevant.

Frau Holle Portrait

Series: Dream Walkers 
2019 – 2021

Fairy-tales are a constant ingredient of all cultures. They inform and describe a culture because, among other things, fairy-tales mirror social norms and solidify those norms by virtue of their distribution. This distribution is primarily by way of oral tradition. The Grimm Brothers have collected fairy-tales from various sources in order to consolidate them in writing. This is how Grimm’s fairy-tales have become a literary and cultural point of reference in Europe and in countries of European influence. 

One thing connects the Grimm tales with those of other cultures and thus indicates the existence of universally felt norms. I mean those archetypical narrative and material elements, that often figure in dreams as well, which are used for personification of good and evil or for indicating a transformation, like the good or the bad fairy or the apple that takes on a catalytic function in a transformative process. 

Like any good story, when it is told well, fairy-tales incite images of their narratives in our heads. They stimulate the imagination and are supposed to sharpen our judgment through their exemplar character. Katerina Belkina allowed herself to be inspired by the tales to create her interpretation of them. Her images, as far as their permanence is concerned, are to be situated between the written and the oral tradition. On one hand they obviously visualize the story, on the other they do not limit the viewer in his / her imagination. The images continue in one’s mind and one can thus become a Dream Walker. In a time when cultural identity is taken very seriously, it is important to find common ground and roots. This is what Belkina’s works allow and what makes them historically and in current discourse so highly relevant.

Frau Holle. Silence.

Series: Dream Walkers 
2019 – 2021 

Fairy-tales are a constant ingredient of all cultures. They inform and describe a culture because, among other things, fairy-tales mirror social norms and solidify those norms by virtue of their distribution. This distribution is primarily by way of oral tradition. The Grimm Brothers have collected fairy-tales from various sources in order to consolidate them in writing. This is how Grimm’s fairy-tales have become a literary and cultural point of reference in Europe and in countries of European influence. 

One thing connects the Grimm tales with those of other cultures and thus indicates the existence of universally felt norms. I mean those archetypical narrative and material elements, that often figure in dreams as well, which are used for personification of good and evil or for indicating a transformation, like the good or the bad fairy or the apple that takes on a catalytic function in a transformative process. 

Like any good story, when it is told well, fairy-tales incite images of their narratives in our heads. They stimulate the imagination and are supposed to sharpen our judgment through their exemplar character. Katerina Belkina allowed herself to be inspired by the tales to create her interpretation of them. Her images, as far as their permanence is concerned, are to be situated between the written and the oral tradition. On one hand they obviously visualize the story, on the other they do not limit the viewer in his / her imagination. The images continue in one’s mind and one can thus become a Dream Walker. In a time when cultural identity is taken very seriously, it is important to find common ground and roots. This is what Belkina’s works allow and what makes them historically and in current discourse so highly relevant.

Whisper

The Deal

The Promise

Obsession

Stepmother

The Gift

Two Towers

Blooming

Rosekiss

Cut Lilies

Thirteenth

Liberality

Series: Dream Walkers 
2019 – 2021  

Fairy-tales are a constant ingredient of all cultures. They inform and describe a culture because, among other things, fairy-tales mirror social norms and solidify those norms by virtue of their distribution. This distribution is primarily by way of oral tradition. The Grimm Brothers have collected fairy-tales from various sources in order to consolidate them in writing. This is how Grimm’s fairy-tales have become a literary and cultural point of reference in Europe and in countries of European influence. 

One thing connects the Grimm tales with those of other cultures and thus indicates the existence of universally felt norms. I mean those archetypical narrative and material elements, that often figure in dreams as well, which are used for personification of good and evil or for indicating a transformation, like the good or the bad fairy or the apple that takes on a catalytic function in a transformative process. 

Like any good story, when it is told well, fairy-tales incite images of their narratives in our heads. They stimulate the imagination and are supposed to sharpen our judgment through their exemplar character. Katerina Belkina allowed herself to be inspired by the tales to create her interpretation of them. Her images, as far as their permanence is concerned, are to be situated between the written and the oral tradition. On one hand they obviously visualize the story, on the other they do not limit the viewer in his / her imagination. The images continue in one’s mind and one can thus become a Dream Walker. In a time when cultural identity is taken very seriously, it is important to find common ground and roots. This is what Belkina’s works allow and what makes them historically and in current discourse so highly relevant.

Shedding Stars

Bird Catcher

Series: Dream Walkers 
2019 – 2021 

Fairy-tales are a constant ingredient of all cultures. They inform and describe a culture because, among other things, fairy-tales mirror social norms and solidify those norms by virtue of their distribution. This distribution is primarily by way of oral tradition. The Grimm Brothers have collected fairy-tales from various sources in order to consolidate them in writing. This is how Grimm’s fairy-tales have become a literary and cultural point of reference in Europe and in countries of European influence. 

One thing connects the Grimm tales with those of other cultures and thus indicates the existence of universally felt norms. I mean those archetypical narrative and material elements, that often figure in dreams as well, which are used for personification of good and evil or for indicating a transformation, like the good or the bad fairy or the apple that takes on a catalytic function in a transformative process. 

Like any good story, when it is told well, fairy-tales incite images of their narratives in our heads. They stimulate the imagination and are supposed to sharpen our judgment through their exemplar character. Katerina Belkina allowed herself to be inspired by the tales to create her interpretation of them. Her images, as far as their permanence is concerned, are to be situated between the written and the oral tradition. On one hand they obviously visualize the story, on the other they do not limit the viewer in his / her imagination. The images continue in one’s mind and one can thus become a Dream Walker. In a time when cultural identity is taken very seriously, it is important to find common ground and roots. This is what Belkina’s works allow and what makes them historically and in current discourse so highly relevant.

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Katerina Belkina