This piece was one of the first abstract compositions I had made of it's kind. The artwork was carefully drawn with pen & ink, drawing inspiration of the emotions and observed designs from the current period in my life. To me it elicits feelings of complexity and clarity in one. A chaotic jungle that dissolves and reappears within itself.

The Original

This piece is an exploration of warmth and motion, where hues of orange and red dominate the space; a scene of intense energy. The composition is alive with a variety of textures and forms, each spiraling into the next with a hypnotic rhythm.

The background is a network of interconnected lines and shapes, creating a sense of depth and complexity. It could be seen as a representation of the interconnectedness of life, where each line is a path or a journey. The overall effect is one of dynamism and transformation, as if the viewer is witnessing the constant flux of the natural world.

Notably, there's a contrast between the circular motifs that resemble celestial bodies or cells, and the sharp, angular patterns that could signify growth or evolution. This dichotomy might speak to the universal contrasts within existence: creation and destruction, growth and decay, movement and stillness.

Artistically, the piece is a testament to the power of line and color to evoke emotion and tell a story. These elements not just to create a picture, but to invoke a feeling of awe and a sense of the infinite complexities that lie within the simple act of perception.

Diablo

This piece aims to create a captivating blend of organic and geometric shapes, with a central form resembling a topographic map. The piece has rich palette of blues and greens, which evoke a sense of the natural world, hinting at elements of water and foliage. The varying shades and tints create depth and movement, drawing the viewer's eye across the canvas in a rhythmic dance. The attention to detail is imperative, with each line and dot contributing to the overall tapestry of the image.

There's a mystical or dreamlike quality to the work, as well, with the possibility of various interpretations depending on the viewer's perspective. It might symbolize growth, harmony, or the intertwining of different elements of existence. Overall, this piece is a stunning visual feast that offers both aesthetic pleasure and thematic depth.

Algae

This pen and ink composition that tells a story of renewal and transformation. Delicate, interconnecting designs symbolize life's intricate dance, weaving through darkness growing to the light of a new beginning. The gradual transition from dark, intricate lines to lighter, open forms signifies the journey from darkness to hope, while hints of budding leaves and blossoming flowers evoke the promise of new growth. With meticulous details, this piece stands as a visual metaphor for the resilience of the human spirit and the cyclical nature of life, inspiring contemplation on the beauty that emerges from even the darkest times.

Feathered

Earlier this year, in the middle of my midterms during my second semester, I was diagnosed with Sensorineural Hearing Loss. It was (and still is) unknown as to how it will develop, or if it will get worse- but I was told the loss I had already sustained was permanent. I was in classes and a major that based itself around sound. Interactive media and art was never complete without musical elements for me. Thus, I had to find a different way to compose and integrate music into my projects. I’m also a super-fan of mushrooms! This created the inspiration for my musical instrument powered by ASL, “Mushies”. Mushies uses notes C-A on the major scale using Tone.js, and correlates it with a mushroom. This mushroom is triggered to “sing” his song, when you sign the letter for the corresponding note according to the ASL alphabet. I coded this using a teachable machine, and hand pose.js. For example, when signing “C”, the C4 note will play. 


Mushies 

Code: https://editor.p5js.org/slr556/present/LU1eJ_YHu

     My project stretches across a multitude of mediums, as I showed my coding/design skills, my artistic skills, and my ability to pull meaningful art from myself. I coded, designed and storyboarded my own Role Play Game based on living with Bipolar Depression. It is programmed through p5.js, and currently has 688 lines of code. I have struggled through depression all my life, but was officially diagnosed with BPD my sophomore year of high school. I felt extremely isolated in my experience, because it felt like simple tasks like brushing my teeth, making food or going to school were mini adventures- each one taking a chunk of life out of me. My motivation to do anything or to have a successful day felt completely out of my control- meanwhile my classmates were able to self-motivate and not bounce around between two extremes. I wanted to create an RPG that wasn’t really an RPG, because you’re not given much of a choice. You as the player may want to open your windows or get out of bed- but you are limited by your depression or mania. Whether you will have a manic or depressive day is completely out of your control as I programmed the code to pick your day randomly. I also wanted to subtly characterize the depression/mania through my text. In the manic version of my game, words and phrases might repeat. In the depressive version, sentences are shortand  disconnected. 


Good Morning 

Melted!

Murakami

Montero

Smile 

Subways

Foxy Brown 

MY MASTER.

There is one grotesque work where the central figure of the girl is the dominant image, on the surface at least. Her eyes are looking in different directions, she might have a squint. The next shot is presenting another character – a fly. The fly is particularly interested in the girl’s eye movement, and it appears to corroborate her relationship with the girl’s vision. We might even call her an upper hand as it skilfully orchestrates the situation. The master, the fly, plays with its disciplined sitter flying from one side of the girl’s face to the other. When the fly solves the puzzle, the beauty of the girl becomes conventional which is mainly reflected in the symmetry. Now when her face takes on common features by the standards of classic beauty, the girl does not seem to be interesting anymore, even though she is truly beautiful now. The fly reproduced the unique version of the beauty and made her socially appropriate by removing something unusual about her appearance.

The current work highlights the author’s pursuit to expose society’s adherence to a doubtless and carefully made up, perfectly symmetrical beauty. But then that idealness and a mask-like beauty gain a somewhat deadening effect. 

So, should a beautiful face be either attractive or interesting? 


My Master

MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE. 

If one watches the first shots of the video, there is an old leather-bound book that looks incredibly unwieldy. This is nothing less than Marcel Proust's work In Search of Lost Time, the work which shows in various ways that our past experience is prolonged and continuous, somewhile creating a loop, and nothing remains from it but memories, which are complex and interrelated.

Supposedly seeing such content and the very fabric of the edition of Proust's work gives an idea of the classics and the eternal, but after a while, a completely different picture opens up in the subsequent frames: the literature's greatest work turns out to be nothing more than a hiding place. A cheap booklet Apocalypses for beginners 2020 might be easily overlooked. Nevertheless, this slender volume is the value kept hidden in a huge work and there is a meaningful linkage between these two books that comes from a vivid contrast, even some kind of a paradox. The idea of using Proust’s book is drawing on the fact that time goes extremely slowly, especially while reading such a masterpiece. Conversely, one can read the booklet in a blink, receive information and a call for action immediately. Here we might reflect on the importance of time: past, present and future. The events of 2020 have shown that the brightest moments go away so quickly and irrevocably. Proust’s work implementing a memory stores guidance for future action. In that manner, a conception of memories of the future was born in the current work.

Often, we inaccurately and incorrectly remember our past, our thoughts are subjective, and the whole memory suffers from misrepresentation. Fortunately, certain memories can be triggered by some anchors, and in this sequence of frames one can find detail is that appears at the end and that might be the anchor echoing the past. It is a bookmark, which helps to get to the stash faster. Something is amusing in the fact that the bookmark is actually a popsicle stick. And this detail brings the form of a personal story rather than an abstract concept to the work due to the sign “Пиздец”. The inscription that the viewer sees on that popsicle stick is not immediately noticeable, but it is right there, acting as the final addition to the work, and showing the personality of the owner of the stash, primarily his negligence, and bringing humour to the work. “That’s fucked up”, the phrase that concludes the story and gives a viewer a chance to think about the situation that might be happened or will happen in the future.


Memories of the Future

364 Days Project

Following on successful solo shows in Gdansk and Berlin in 2017, 364 Days is a personal, artistic and cultural project by Sasha Sokolova, documenting the daily life of Russia's remaining war veterans, including that of her grandfather, who is also her mentor and first teacher. The exhibition will be at Pop Up Museum in Moscow from 8th May. More details at http://www.sashasokolova.com

www.sashasokolova.com
# oil painting, realism, portraiture, figurative art, moscow, contemporary russian art


364 Days

Waiting

Recent work of my grandfather Yuriy Oparin, an artist and my first mentor, painted with his brushes and oils that I recently found at his apartment.  He is also a war veteran and this work will form part of a new series of portraits focussing on the remaining war veterans in Moscow.

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Alexandra Lamson

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