Artist Statement

I grew up in the criminal 1990s in a city lost in the wild and harsh nature of Siberia. Defense was survival. I had to grow spines early. A way to escape a reality where an outdated and ignorant language of power traditionally prevailed, was creativity. Along with the values of freedom and honesty, it became the foundation of what I now call New Sincerity. In my practice, I rethink oppressive traditions, using traditional handicrafts and an ancient medium — tempera — as symbols. I work with tempera and textiles like dead Siberian soil, where something new will grow regardless. It breaks through the dense structure of hand-made fabrics and the rigid, ossified tempera despite the texture’s resistance to change, disruption, or nontraditional use. The new carries vitality, and through resistance, new forms emerge.

Resistance and the vitality of the new reflect my approach to life and my call, expressed through Satyagraha — nonviolent resistance, literally "holding onto truth." While living in Russia, I criticized dictatorship and the collaborationist nature of cultural institutions, and prefer an oppositional stance, hermitism, non-cooperation, and an exhibition in an abandoned stairwell (2016) over museums and galleries. This meant no support and negligible chances of leaving a totalitarian state. But more importantly, it meant my personal "holding onto truth." In 2019, I left Russia and continued my practice in Georgia.

The Caucasus revealed the theme of vitality, as one could literally observe how city and flora fight there every day. The plant world became my key metaphor of identity and struggle. Plants have learned to use every element, and the resilience of their seeds inspires and sustains hope. In recent years, I have been depicting the world "through the eyes" of plants or fungi to understand other perspectives, continuing the ideas of Robert Anton Wilson in Quantum Psychology about the necessity of agnosticism and dismantling one’s own reality tunnels.

The loss of home, wars, and other crises of our time push my research beyond the planet, and romantic images of a warm home in cold space increasingly appear in my work, sometimes as pastel textures like cosmic dust, or as color combinations reminiscent of the northern lights. I am drawn to the naive and bold ideas of Timothy Leary (The Game of Life, on individual development) and Russian Cosmism (Anton Vidokle, Oksana Timofeeva, on collective development). The vision of the cosmos as home became even more personal after my emigration to France in 2024 and obtaining refugee status.

As David Foster Wallace urged, we must again "treat old untrendy human troubles" in a world of learned cynicism and desperate consumption. Reality has been devalued and cruelly mocked by empty entertainment, (post-)irony, and the internet as a set of simulacra and simulations. In my work, I seek a way out of this noise, a path toward truth and focus.