Blue Orchids.

For the 2024 edition of the ART021 fair in Shanghai, Ms. Marina Fedorova created a series of paintings entitled Blue Orchids. The series’ key expressive devices are surreal imagery and colour. Various shades of blue were selected for their association with water, sky, and air. The snow-capped mountainscapes can also be read as visual representations of the element of water, appearing in the physical states of snow and ice.

For the Artist, the natural element of water becomes an object of art, symbolising the life-giving force of nature. Up to 80% of the human body is water, and human embryos inside the mother’s womb form and develop in the amniotic fluid colloquially known as ‘water.’ Astronauts train underwater, as the physical aspects of neutral buoyancy are closest to the state of zero gravity. Performing various tasks at a water immersion facility, they essentially learn to survive underwater in order to better adapt to the microgravity during spaceflight. Dark or light blue, clear, cool or warm, water can be liquid, solid, or gaseous. Humans always perceived aquatic depths as unknown domain – similar to the outer space that has always signified the unknown and is now also synonymous with weightlessness.

In this series of paintings, the Artist revisits her favourite motif of snow peaks – except that here she enriches the state of meditative contemplation invoked by the mountain landscapes by introducing a fantasy image charged with a special meaning: the blue tropical orchids, known for their capacity for survival under severe conditions, indicate power and endurance.

Here, Melting Glacier is rendered in monochrome to better convey the state of balance between the celestial, aerial, and aquatic – both natural and artificial. The Artist uses a shade of blue to depict the blurred borders, seemingly illustrating the transition between dream and reality, referencing the Surrealists’ play with multi-dimensionality and visual perception. Ms. Fedorova’s choice of colours allows her to point towards other dimensions, an abode of dreams where the connection to the waking state is broken and the dividing line between space and time is obscured.

The artwork stylistically gravitates towards Art Deco, as suggested by its streamlined geometry, deliberate lack of mysterious and profound symbolism, and a general escapist feel. Ms. Marina Fedorova sharply divides the pictorial plane into two parts, intentionally placing the otherworldly realm behind the confines delineated by the mountain range and mirror-like water surface and apparently beyond reach. In addition to other physical attributes, water also has optical properties, refracting light, deforming appearances, creating natural boundaries between environments. It is these deformations pointing to the existence of other worlds that the painter seeks to portray, inadvertently quoting the artistic and philosophical tropes of the 20th century: engaging in a game with the viewer’s imagination, she comes up with new visions of the non-existent.

Another surreal element of the painting that takes up a large portion of its spatial arrangement is the blue orchid epitomising transcendence. The image of the flower is dramatically exaggerated, although not given centre stage: the gigantic inflorescence is placed behind the mountain range, seemingly off limits. The mountaintops emphasise the flower’s scale and simultaneously accentuate its otherworldliness. Thus the orchid is perceived not as a feature of natural beauty, but as an animate being, a character complete with its own story.

A landscape blending snow-capped mountains and tropical orchids is enchanting in its non-realistic quality. However, the Artist admits that she was initially struck by the beauty of a completely real blue flower she had glimpsed in a shop window. Taking the flower home, Ms. Fedorova was caught in a snow storm. The snowflakes being blown over the blue blossoms created an improbable contrast that had so impressed the Artist that she was inspired to start a new series of paintings.

The composition of the second artwork, Blue Orchids, is built around a clearly visible mountain range, to which end the Artist selected an elevated viewpoint, as if the peaks were at the viewer’s eye level. Here, too, a sensation of unreality is induced by the appearance of blossoming blue orchids. They act as a screen concealing the way to uncharted and sacral domains beyond the layman’s reach. Drawing the bulk of attention, they seem to distract the viewers, hiding among their stems a fossilised skeleton of some extinct animal acting as a symbol of all things old and defunct, no longer belonging in this world. Like the Surrealists before her, the Artist is fascinated by death as a biological experience of bodily transformation. Here, just as in Melting Glacier, Ms. Marina Fedorova divides the pictorial plane in two, placing the past behind clearly marked borders, thereby making it hard to approach or even utterly inaccessible.

Orchids, particularly the blue variety, make the impression of something otherworldly. Although such colours do not occur naturally and were introduced artificially, the flower itself is an undisputable work of nature. Despite their outward fragility, these flowers are incredibly sturdy and resilient. Some species grow on bare rocks or high up in the treetops without ever touching the ground. Orchids symbolise survival amid inhospitable environments, not only managing to retain their beauty, but becoming the paragon of dignity and adaptability. The Artist bestows these qualities upon human beings by envisioning a hybrid of man and orchid.

It is through the medium of sculpture that Ms. Fedorova continues her fantasy play, evoking the Surrealists’ beloved game of ‘exquisite corpse’ that originated uncanny imagery of half-humans and half-animals by merging human figures with various objects, fish or insects. In this case, the Artist treats the orchid not merely as a beautiful inflorescence, but as a living being veering towards anthropomorphism and having a character and destiny of its own. Revisiting her past as an academically trained fashion designer, Ms. Marina Fedorova creates a series of mannequin-like sculptures that augment the concept of the Blue Orchids series, further elaborating its mood through gestures, postures, and the overall image. The purpose of this particular mannequin is not to demonstrate the art of garment design, but to conceal its natural fragility by expressly showing off its exceptionality – an approach at odds with the true spirit of nature.

For instance, Orchid Lady 2 sculpture seems to be growing out of a block of stone, from which emerges an anthropomorphic figure wearing an orchid-shaped face mask. The face is only partially covered, leaving in the open view the most important window to the soul – the eyes.

Floral motifs in art are usually symbolically charged and trigger various associations which are also present in this sculptural composition. The flower’s shape, colour, taste, smell, and blossoming time normally have various attached connotations, offering a key to personality or communicating a certain moral or philosophical message. Botanical symbolism can be traced back to ancient literature in which plants were often used as metaphors for virtues and vices. Some species are even mentioned as characters of myths and legends endowed with distinctive skills and personality traits that predestine their fate and mission. Ms. Marina Fedorova enhances the new artwork series with this sculpture to illustrate the concept of beauty being born out of shapelessness through efforts not only physical, but also mental and spiritual.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Blue Orchids.

For the 2024 edition of the ART021 fair in Shanghai, Ms. Marina Fedorova created a series of paintings entitled Blue Orchids. The series’ key expressive devices are surreal imagery and colour. Various shades of blue were selected for their association with water, sky, and air. The snow-capped mountainscapes can also be read as visual representations of the element of water, appearing in the physical states of snow and ice.

For the Artist, the natural element of water becomes an object of art, symbolising the life-giving force of nature. Up to 80% of the human body is water, and human embryos inside the mother’s womb form and develop in the amniotic fluid colloquially known as ‘water.’ Astronauts train underwater, as the physical aspects of neutral buoyancy are closest to the state of zero gravity. Performing various tasks at a water immersion facility, they essentially learn to survive underwater in order to better adapt to the microgravity during spaceflight. Dark or light blue, clear, cool or warm, water can be liquid, solid, or gaseous. Humans always perceived aquatic depths as unknown domain – similar to the outer space that has always signified the unknown and is now also synonymous with weightlessness.

In this series of paintings, the Artist revisits her favourite motif of snow peaks – except that here she enriches the state of meditative contemplation invoked by the mountain landscapes by introducing a fantasy image charged with a special meaning: the blue tropical orchids, known for their capacity for survival under severe conditions, indicate power and endurance.

Here, Melting Glacier is rendered in monochrome to better convey the state of balance between the celestial, aerial, and aquatic – both natural and artificial. The Artist uses a shade of blue to depict the blurred borders, seemingly illustrating the transition between dream and reality, referencing the Surrealists’ play with multi-dimensionality and visual perception. Ms. Fedorova’s choice of colours allows her to point towards other dimensions, an abode of dreams where the connection to the waking state is broken and the dividing line between space and time is obscured.

The artwork stylistically gravitates towards Art Deco, as suggested by its streamlined geometry, deliberate lack of mysterious and profound symbolism, and a general escapist feel. Ms. Marina Fedorova sharply divides the pictorial plane into two parts, intentionally placing the otherworldly realm behind the confines delineated by the mountain range and mirror-like water surface and apparently beyond reach. In addition to other physical attributes, water also has optical properties, refracting light, deforming appearances, creating natural boundaries between environments. It is these deformations pointing to the existence of other worlds that the painter seeks to portray, inadvertently quoting the artistic and philosophical tropes of the 20th century: engaging in a game with the viewer’s imagination, she comes up with new visions of the non-existent.

Another surreal element of the painting that takes up a large portion of its spatial arrangement is the blue orchid epitomising transcendence. The image of the flower is dramatically exaggerated, although not given centre stage: the gigantic inflorescence is placed behind the mountain range, seemingly off limits. The mountaintops emphasise the flower’s scale and simultaneously accentuate its otherworldliness. Thus the orchid is perceived not as a feature of natural beauty, but as an animate being, a character complete with its own story.

A landscape blending snow-capped mountains and tropical orchids is enchanting in its non-realistic quality. However, the Artist admits that she was initially struck by the beauty of a completely real blue flower she had glimpsed in a shop window. Taking the flower home, Ms. Fedorova was caught in a snow storm. The snowflakes being blown over the blue blossoms created an improbable contrast that had so impressed the Artist that she was inspired to start a new series of paintings.

The composition of the second artwork, Blue Orchids, is built around a clearly visible mountain range, to which end the Artist selected an elevated viewpoint, as if the peaks were at the viewer’s eye level. Here, too, a sensation of unreality is induced by the appearance of blossoming blue orchids. They act as a screen concealing the way to uncharted and sacral domains beyond the layman’s reach. Drawing the bulk of attention, they seem to distract the viewers, hiding among their stems a fossilised skeleton of some extinct animal acting as a symbol of all things old and defunct, no longer belonging in this world. Like the Surrealists before her, the Artist is fascinated by death as a biological experience of bodily transformation. Here, just as in Melting Glacier, Ms. Marina Fedorova divides the pictorial plane in two, placing the past behind clearly marked borders, thereby making it hard to approach or even utterly inaccessible.

Orchids, particularly the blue variety, make the impression of something otherworldly. Although such colours do not occur naturally and were introduced artificially, the flower itself is an undisputable work of nature. Despite their outward fragility, these flowers are incredibly sturdy and resilient. Some species grow on bare rocks or high up in the treetops without ever touching the ground. Orchids symbolise survival amid inhospitable environments, not only managing to retain their beauty, but becoming the paragon of dignity and adaptability. The Artist bestows these qualities upon human beings by envisioning a hybrid of man and orchid.

It is through the medium of sculpture that Ms. Fedorova continues her fantasy play, evoking the Surrealists’ beloved game of ‘exquisite corpse’ that originated uncanny imagery of half-humans and half-animals by merging human figures with various objects, fish or insects. In this case, the Artist treats the orchid not merely as a beautiful inflorescence, but as a living being veering towards anthropomorphism and having a character and destiny of its own. Revisiting her past as an academically trained fashion designer, Ms. Marina Fedorova creates a series of mannequin-like sculptures that augment the concept of the Blue Orchids series, further elaborating its mood through gestures, postures, and the overall image. The purpose of this particular mannequin is not to demonstrate the art of garment design, but to conceal its natural fragility by expressly showing off its exceptionality – an approach at odds with the true spirit of nature.

For instance, Orchid Lady 2 sculpture seems to be growing out of a block of stone, from which emerges an anthropomorphic figure wearing an orchid-shaped face mask. The face is only partially covered, leaving in the open view the most important window to the soul – the eyes.

Floral motifs in art are usually symbolically charged and trigger various associations which are also present in this sculptural composition. The flower’s shape, colour, taste, smell, and blossoming time normally have various attached connotations, offering a key to personality or communicating a certain moral or philosophical message. Botanical symbolism can be traced back to ancient literature in which plants were often used as metaphors for virtues and vices. Some species are even mentioned as characters of myths and legends endowed with distinctive skills and personality traits that predestine their fate and mission. Ms. Marina Fedorova enhances the new artwork series with this sculpture to illustrate the concept of beauty being born out of shapelessness through efforts not only physical, but also mental and spiritual.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Blue Orchids.

For the 2024 edition of the ART021 fair in Shanghai, Ms. Marina Fedorova created a series of paintings entitled Blue Orchids. The series’ key expressive devices are surreal imagery and colour. Various shades of blue were selected for their association with water, sky, and air. The snow-capped mountainscapes can also be read as visual representations of the element of water, appearing in the physical states of snow and ice.

For the Artist, the natural element of water becomes an object of art, symbolising the life-giving force of nature. Up to 80% of the human body is water, and human embryos inside the mother’s womb form and develop in the amniotic fluid colloquially known as ‘water.’ Astronauts train underwater, as the physical aspects of neutral buoyancy are closest to the state of zero gravity. Performing various tasks at a water immersion facility, they essentially learn to survive underwater in order to better adapt to the microgravity during spaceflight. Dark or light blue, clear, cool or warm, water can be liquid, solid, or gaseous. Humans always perceived aquatic depths as unknown domain – similar to the outer space that has always signified the unknown and is now also synonymous with weightlessness.

In this series of paintings, the Artist revisits her favourite motif of snow peaks – except that here she enriches the state of meditative contemplation invoked by the mountain landscapes by introducing a fantasy image charged with a special meaning: the blue tropical orchids, known for their capacity for survival under severe conditions, indicate power and endurance.

Here, Melting Glacier is rendered in monochrome to better convey the state of balance between the celestial, aerial, and aquatic – both natural and artificial. The Artist uses a shade of blue to depict the blurred borders, seemingly illustrating the transition between dream and reality, referencing the Surrealists’ play with multi-dimensionality and visual perception. Ms. Fedorova’s choice of colours allows her to point towards other dimensions, an abode of dreams where the connection to the waking state is broken and the dividing line between space and time is obscured.

The artwork stylistically gravitates towards Art Deco, as suggested by its streamlined geometry, deliberate lack of mysterious and profound symbolism, and a general escapist feel. Ms. Marina Fedorova sharply divides the pictorial plane into two parts, intentionally placing the otherworldly realm behind the confines delineated by the mountain range and mirror-like water surface and apparently beyond reach. In addition to other physical attributes, water also has optical properties, refracting light, deforming appearances, creating natural boundaries between environments. It is these deformations pointing to the existence of other worlds that the painter seeks to portray, inadvertently quoting the artistic and philosophical tropes of the 20th century: engaging in a game with the viewer’s imagination, she comes up with new visions of the non-existent.

Another surreal element of the painting that takes up a large portion of its spatial arrangement is the blue orchid epitomising transcendence. The image of the flower is dramatically exaggerated, although not given centre stage: the gigantic inflorescence is placed behind the mountain range, seemingly off limits. The mountaintops emphasise the flower’s scale and simultaneously accentuate its otherworldliness. Thus the orchid is perceived not as a feature of natural beauty, but as an animate being, a character complete with its own story.

A landscape blending snow-capped mountains and tropical orchids is enchanting in its non-realistic quality. However, the Artist admits that she was initially struck by the beauty of a completely real blue flower she had glimpsed in a shop window. Taking the flower home, Ms. Fedorova was caught in a snow storm. The snowflakes being blown over the blue blossoms created an improbable contrast that had so impressed the Artist that she was inspired to start a new series of paintings.

The composition of the second artwork, Blue Orchids, is built around a clearly visible mountain range, to which end the Artist selected an elevated viewpoint, as if the peaks were at the viewer’s eye level. Here, too, a sensation of unreality is induced by the appearance of blossoming blue orchids. They act as a screen concealing the way to uncharted and sacral domains beyond the layman’s reach. Drawing the bulk of attention, they seem to distract the viewers, hiding among their stems a fossilised skeleton of some extinct animal acting as a symbol of all things old and defunct, no longer belonging in this world. Like the Surrealists before her, the Artist is fascinated by death as a biological experience of bodily transformation. Here, just as in Melting Glacier, Ms. Marina Fedorova divides the pictorial plane in two, placing the past behind clearly marked borders, thereby making it hard to approach or even utterly inaccessible.

Orchids, particularly the blue variety, make the impression of something otherworldly. Although such colours do not occur naturally and were introduced artificially, the flower itself is an undisputable work of nature. Despite their outward fragility, these flowers are incredibly sturdy and resilient. Some species grow on bare rocks or high up in the treetops without ever touching the ground. Orchids symbolise survival amid inhospitable environments, not only managing to retain their beauty, but becoming the paragon of dignity and adaptability. The Artist bestows these qualities upon human beings by envisioning a hybrid of man and orchid.

It is through the medium of sculpture that Ms. Fedorova continues her fantasy play, evoking the Surrealists’ beloved game of ‘exquisite corpse’ that originated uncanny imagery of half-humans and half-animals by merging human figures with various objects, fish or insects. In this case, the Artist treats the orchid not merely as a beautiful inflorescence, but as a living being veering towards anthropomorphism and having a character and destiny of its own. Revisiting her past as an academically trained fashion designer, Ms. Marina Fedorova creates a series of mannequin-like sculptures that augment the concept of the Blue Orchids series, further elaborating its mood through gestures, postures, and the overall image. The purpose of this particular mannequin is not to demonstrate the art of garment design, but to conceal its natural fragility by expressly showing off its exceptionality – an approach at odds with the true spirit of nature.

For instance, Orchid Lady 2 sculpture seems to be growing out of a block of stone, from which emerges an anthropomorphic figure wearing an orchid-shaped face mask. The face is only partially covered, leaving in the open view the most important window to the soul – the eyes.

Floral motifs in art are usually symbolically charged and trigger various associations which are also present in this sculptural composition. The flower’s shape, colour, taste, smell, and blossoming time normally have various attached connotations, offering a key to personality or communicating a certain moral or philosophical message. Botanical symbolism can be traced back to ancient literature in which plants were often used as metaphors for virtues and vices. Some species are even mentioned as characters of myths and legends endowed with distinctive skills and personality traits that predestine their fate and mission. Ms. Marina Fedorova enhances the new artwork series with this sculpture to illustrate the concept of beauty being born out of shapelessness through efforts not only physical, but also mental and spiritual.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Black

The series of works entitled Black encompasses paintings sharing a similar chromatic approach. Immediately prior to turning to the monochrome palette, Ms. Marina Fedorova ventured into intaglio printmaking and photogravure, immersing herself in the aesthetic sensibility of black and white art prints. In the past, the Artist’s creative practice also featured instances of monochrome and black and white painting. The choice of this palette usually signals her wish to accentuate a certain emotional state that is being expressed by the artwork.

One of the paintings created early in 2025, Rock, is a rather vivid visual articulation of anguish and psychological tension. Its title is also suggestive of the Russian meaning of the world ‘rock’ signifying imminent fate or doom.

The painting is vertically arranged, with most of its central space being occupied by a shapeless black substance. Ms. Fedorova uses wide brush strokes to create the impression of a ‘living’ and moving black mass. Acting as the central focal point, it seems to be the picture’s main protagonist. Lying under this black dab is a woman’s body – tense and having hardly any bearings, it seems to float, lacking control over itself, with the dominant role and power surrendered to the dark matter that appears to lift and draw in its passive subject just like the impending and paralysing evil fate that cannot be escaped of one’s own volition. The present is inevitable, the future is unknown, there is no way out: all that interferes with life creates suffering and preordains plight. The image seems to allude to the religious and philosophical apology of affliction, the inability to affect one’s own destiny. Just as analytical psychology views human fate as a reflection of the internal, unconscious, and uncontrollable processes, so does Ms. Fedorova’s painting present the female figure as frail and powerless, incapable of making her own choices, and subject to the impartial destiny. Below the woman’s body, supporting the vertical composition, the Artist intentionally leaves downward streaks of paint, with the resulting impression of the dark matter piercing it through, pulling in all its lifeblood and sucking it dry. A surreal feel and the relevant positioning of the woman and her fate are achieved through conscious jettisoning of a clear perspective. Whereas the Surrealists of the past used to play with space by distorting perspective and blurring its boundaries, Ms. Marina Fedorova, too, creates an otherworldly atmosphere by sidestepping an accurately constructed spatial arrangement, ostensibly placing the scene in an unknown dimension impervious to the human mind.

Another painting in the series, Ljubljana Angel, also deals with the themes of doom, predestination, and inability to control one’s own life and fate. Its main character is presented as a marionette walking along the edge of a high-rise roof. A focal point of the picture, it is seen from behind, and its gender is difficult to determine. In this highly charged spectacle, sexual identity is effaced: it makes no difference who or what you are if you walk the tight line with something behind your back pulling at the strings and controlling your every move, infringing upon your body and subjecting it to the whim of unseen forces.

Painted in various shades of grey and black, with only the red strings providing a chromatic alternative, the canvas creates a profoundly tragic and depressive mood, with both its subject and palette suggesting loss of will and renunciation of growth, future, and, ultimately, life.

This powerful image of predestination that cannot be properly handled by the human protagonist envisions it in the form of strings attached to the figure’s hands and feet and used by someone to control it and steer it towards its dangerous path along the edge. Rather than portraying the point at which this choice was made, Ms. Fedorova concentrates on the main character’s acceptance of the unavoidable outcome that can take on the form of death. The strings become an important visual signifier and the only colourful detail in the entire painting – their red hue evokes bloody filaments, enhancing the visual representation of the loss of life. The symbolism of strings, threads, and weaving is still present in many cultures, alluding to the power of destiny and its role in human lives. The female characters of ancient myths and legends embodying the understanding of the earthly world order through the projection of cosmological beliefs – like the ancient Greek Moira Clotho, the Egyptian goddess Neith, the deities of the Scandinavians and Teutons like Hulda, Frigg and the Norns, the Mesopotamian goddesses Ishtar and Atargatis, and the Slavic Mokosh – were all weavers of destiny, creating the intricate cloth of the world and human fates and ultimately cutting the thread of life. In a similar fashion, the Artist uses this painting as a way to reflect on the lack of will and responsibility for one’s own decisions and path in life.

The artwork’s composition is such that the Artist appears to be an outside observer watching the scene from a building next door. The high rise pictured seems neither monumental nor even stable enough, its windowpanes pierced with cracks reflecting some dark world, and one gets the impression that the whole structure is crumbling or, if we focus long enough on the figure balancing on its roof, even swaying. Composition-wise, the picture has no solid point of support or balance, channelling a feeling of hopelessness and despair.

It might as well be that the entire series of works reflects the Artist’s emotional state impacted among other things by outside factors. This is an allegoric representation of the feelings of powerlessness and despair in the face of certain inevitable events and inability to make a palpable difference on anything taking place in this world.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Chinese Fairy Tales

Ms. Marina Fedorova was born in the last years of the huge communist state. The Artist’s childhood and youth coincided with the turbulent period of the Russian 1990s and 2000s with its drastic changes. The world was gradually shifting gears, and with the fall of the Iron Curtain a torrent of new information rushed into the country. New values were introduced – along with the new style and appreciation of life – via the fresh and exciting imagery of fashion industry, mass market, and commercials that suddenly were everywhere.

Finding herself amid this new system of references, Ms. Marina Fedorova absorbed and processed the new trends, turning them into her own version of beauty. Highly perceptive of and sensitive to the messages that seemed to be in the air, she learned to express herself through images and identify through art.

The Artist’s ability to convey the spirit of times and create compelling paintings is brilliantly brought to bear in her large-scale space-inspired project. Delving into this subject, Ms. Fedorova inadvertently acts as the successor and proponent of the Russian cosmism movement. The ideas behind her COSMODREAMS project are in accord with the philosophical theories that emerged as early as the 1800s. While elaborating the cosmic theme, the Artist came to the creation of thematic clusters, each echoing the ideas voiced by the artists and philosophers at the dawn of the 20th century. For instance, the Dystopia cluster seems to be an unpremeditated visual reflection on the teachings of Nikolai Fyodorov (1829–1903), the founder of Russian cosmism who argued that the general disorder of human life results from the loss of harmony between man and nature. For the Russian philosophers who built on these ideas (Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florensky, Semyon Frank), mankind was the inheritor and continuer of life, not its destroyer. According to their beliefs, the meaning of life is in the negation of evil by doing good, thus asserting the life on the planet. The fundamental idea at the heart of the Russian cosmism is the connection between humans and space. This paradigm unexpectedly chimes with the wisdom passed on in the myths and legends of various ancient cultures, including the Chinese civilisation.

The Chinese Fairy Tales cluster took pride of place within the larger COSMODREAMS series for a reason. China is one of the most amazing and mysterious countries of the world. The birthplace of papermaking and book printing, gunpowder and compass, silk, and porcelain, as well as many other useful inventions and discoveries has always been a true magnet for historians, explorers, travellers, and of course artists. To a person from a different culture, this unique oriental tradition seems like a universe of its own. A great country boasting three millennia of cultural history, China is a place where tradition harmoniously blends with cutting-edge technology.

The paintings within this cluster illustrate various legends lying at the heart of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. The Artist creates something akin to a shot-by-shot breakdown of the ancient story.

The very title of the first painting in the series, Ten Suns, alludes to the Chinese legend about the ten celestial bodies that caused disasters and misfortunes. The story behind the artwork seems to dovetail with the premises of the Russian cosmism.

The vertically arranged picture with its S-shaped composition reminiscent of a wavy dragon spine produces a dynamic effect. This visual structure allows the Artist to create the illusion of spinning circles symbolising the ten suns of the Chinese legend. Appearing in the foreground and central to the composition is a disk-shaped unidentified flying object. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but in fact it was the point of departure for a whole new cluster within the COSMODREAMS project. The spaceship pictured here has either just landed on the picturesque land of China or has long since become part of its landscape. The Artist uses this element to spin a time-spanning story and extend it long into the future. The link of times can also be traced in the vertical composition dominated by mountains and inspired by the traditional Chinese ink paintings in which the mountainous ranges stood for the supporting pillars of creation representing on Earth the eternal Sky, the Skyward Path, the very pinnacle from which the Time itself comes pouring down. Humans have always considered such places as the abode of spirit and the symbol of inner peace.

The Artist uses a relatively monochrome colour palette avoiding extreme brightness: the shades chosen to tell the story are cool and subdued, suggesting emotional detachment, chilling clarity, a time stood still. It seems as if the creator of the painting were merely an observer, watching on as the plot develops. The traditional tales passed down through millennia, along with their decoded meanings, have already become part of the nation’s cultural DNA and will likely go on.

Two other important paintings of the Chinese Fairy Tales cluster are The Last Sun and Moon Festival. They continue the storyline of the oriental folk tale. The Last Sun, with its vivid bright colours and large male and female figures at the centre reminds one of a smart contemporary media poster or a stylish advertisement for a social cause spreading important cultural values. The picture illustrates a poignant legend of the power of love between a man and a woman, with the sun and the moon embodying the male and the female principles respectively.

The Artist expertly directs the viewer’s gaze, locking it right from the start on the brightest point at the very centre of the painting – the blazing sun serving as its backdrop and symbolising fire and majesty. The circle fit into the square composition sets it in spiralling motion and imparts dynamism to the picture. The meticulously painted male and female figures, apart from referencing the legendary Hou Yi and Chang’e, also put one in mind of the iconic yin and yang image denoting the relationship of the two opposites – light and darkness, day and night, the sun and the moon. The characters’ hands are interlocked, creating yet another circular motif within the picture – once again visualising the cyclical movement, the strong interrelation of the opposites forming an integral whole.

The second picture of the duo, Moon Festival, resembles the closing frame in a beautiful feature film. The viewer’s attention is drawn to the beautiful face of the girl and her observant eyes. The Artist creates the sensation of freely breathing wind and moving air by accurately rendering the strands of hair falling on the female character’s face. The dynamics of the picture is further reinforced by the use of bright contrasting colours against a dark background as well as its triangular composition. This triangle seems to direct the general upward motion. One look at the canvas is enough to realise that the vivid yellow brushstrokes represent the iconic Chinese lanterns. This is part of the mesmerising ritual accompanying each Moon Festival. The magical feeling is enhanced by the reflections of light painted on the water.

The borderline between land and water divides the painting in two. The viewer’s initial gaze meets the attentive eyes of the Moon Goddess, sweeps further to reach the waterline in the left corner, follows the horizon, and then rises again. The Artist thus directs the viewers’ eyes along this mentally constructed triangle, culminating at the top where they once again meet the eyes of Chang’e. We keep returning to this observant stare – yet another symbol of nature’s cycles, the motion of planets in their courses, and the change of seasons. The moon renews each month, forcing the humans to feel the effects of the cosmic order.

New Shanghai 3 is another important and striking painting in the series. Here, Ms. Fedorova once again depicts an urban landscape, but this time we observe it not from the outside but seemingly from the inside, as if belonging here. Utilising an elongated horizontal format, the Artist conveys the sensation of a wide open space. This format is ideal for demonstrating the action unfolding on several planes, while the diagonal composition imparts dynamic movement. The Artist shows the life of the city by putting to use the classical devices used to render movement, juxtaposing several different elements in one picture, intentionally painting certain details with a shifting effect, and avoiding perfect alignment of the triptych parts. In addition, she conveys the sensation of a blowing wind by carefully painting the protagonists’ windswept hair. The wind ruffles the girl’s hairdo and the soft fir of the other important character – the nine-tailed fox.

Ms. Fedorova finds this mythical creature from Chinese tales very appealing and recalls the ancient legend: the wise thousand-year-old fox can only appear at times when the world is at peace. In this respect, the female figure turns out to be a reincarnation of the mythical animal, as well as the link between the parts of the Chinese cosmogony triad: the Sky, the Earth, and the human world. Thus, the Artist references the concept of unity of the macro- and microcosms, also reflected in various myths about the origin of the world and humans.

Alongside the central images of the girl and the mythical fox, the viewer’s attention is focused on the two astronaut figures and two planets that uphold the recurring space theme of the series. This symmetry and duality are yet another manifestation of the balance and harmony between the two opposites.

Another urban landscape painted by Ms. Marina Fedorova for the series, Golden Gate, features a prominent landmark of Chengdu City, the Anshun Bridge, that has retained its original location and traditional design since the 13th century, despite the many renovations and the modern urban developments surrounding it. The imaginary cityscape illustrates the emergence of a new and yet unknown world. For this painting, the Artist chose her signature alla prima technique, swiftly capturing a fleeting emotional state triggered by reflections on the issue of immediate concern. She renders an imaginary cityscape that seems to attest to a successful colonisation of faraway planets and building of a new civilisation while preserving the national identity and culture of every ethnic group. That is why the painting’s eye-catching centrepiece is the golden gate complete with architectural elements that bear distinct ethnic features. In almost any culture, gates have traditionally symbolised the point of transition between worlds. In Ms. Fedorova’s painting, they indicate a passage into a new world accessible only to those who are ready to undergo an internal transformation in order to become part of the future.

Visible in the background is a large contemporary metropolis painted in green, nearly emerald hues. The Artist seems to have chosen these colours to accentuate the symbolic meaning of a new beginning, create an image of growth and development of a new civilisation far away from Earth. Full of energy and glow, the city is teeming with a fresh life force. This unrealistic, imaginary realm becomes part of the cosmic landscape and universal space, offering a glimpse not of the sunrises and sunsets that Earth dwellers are accustomed to, but of beautiful space nebulae, giving humans a chance to experience nature afresh. The Artist emphasises her subject matter by choosing a strikingly dark backdrop for the sky – the colour of the endless and unknown extraterrestrial space.

The irreality of the landscape is underscored by the three planets appearing in the sky. It is evident that this city belongs to a gravitationally bound system of some other major star.

The Black Egg painting takes the viewer on a journey into a world of magic, to some non-existent, fairytale place. This feeling is reinforced by the Artist’s choice of unusual shades of blue and violet rarely found in this particular combination in the world we are used to. This is an alternative reality, a mirage that might remain unattainable, more like a hologram than a real place, unless mankind changes its attitude towards nature – the source of all living things on Earth.

Painstakingly rendered with much detail are the magical flowers and the forest overgrown with ferns, sacral and mysterious. We see a world in which a life of its own takes place in parallel time, and something new is being born.

The Artist invites us to travel to a fantasy universe and stroll through this imaginary forest. Just like the Symbolists in the early 20th century, Ms. Fedorova manages to convey profound meanings using a simple and accessible story.

In Moon Pandas, the viewer’s attention is immediately drawn to the images of cute animals epitomising peace and friendship. Pandas are adored the world over, thought to embody delicacy, harmony, and trust. The Artist depicts these charming creatures inside a domed glass greenhouse. The black and white bears set against a brightly coloured, somewhat idealistic background seem to want for nothing: their every need is met, with plenty of bamboo, flowers, and foliage provided.

The pandas themselves bring out only positive emotions and tenderness. Nevertheless, one can’t help noticing that, instead of enjoying a bright sunny day in their natural habitat, the animals are pictured against a cosmic background. Beyond this glass dome is the open space, a realm that is still uncharted territory for mankind, at the same time intriguing and – like all things unknown – subconsciously threatening. The Artist intentionally places these sweet creatures inside a space greenhouse: it symbolises her desire to preserve human warmth and affection, inner harmony, and integrity of soul no matter what living environment awaits humans in the future.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Chinese Fairy Tales

Ms. Marina Fedorova was born in the last years of the huge communist state. The Artist’s childhood and youth coincided with the turbulent period of the Russian 1990s and 2000s with its drastic changes. The world was gradually shifting gears, and with the fall of the Iron Curtain a torrent of new information rushed into the country. New values were introduced – along with the new style and appreciation of life – via the fresh and exciting imagery of fashion industry, mass market, and commercials that suddenly were everywhere.

Finding herself amid this new system of references, Ms. Marina Fedorova absorbed and processed the new trends, turning them into her own version of beauty. Highly perceptive of and sensitive to the messages that seemed to be in the air, she learned to express herself through images and identify through art.

The Artist’s ability to convey the spirit of times and create compelling paintings is brilliantly brought to bear in her large-scale space-inspired project. Delving into this subject, Ms. Fedorova inadvertently acts as the successor and proponent of the Russian cosmism movement. The ideas behind her COSMODREAMS project are in accord with the philosophical theories that emerged as early as the 1800s. While elaborating the cosmic theme, the Artist came to the creation of thematic clusters, each echoing the ideas voiced by the artists and philosophers at the dawn of the 20th century. For instance, the Dystopia cluster seems to be an unpremeditated visual reflection on the teachings of Nikolai Fyodorov (1829–1903), the founder of Russian cosmism who argued that the general disorder of human life results from the loss of harmony between man and nature. For the Russian philosophers who built on these ideas (Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florensky, Semyon Frank), mankind was the inheritor and continuer of life, not its destroyer. According to their beliefs, the meaning of life is in the negation of evil by doing good, thus asserting the life on the planet. The fundamental idea at the heart of the Russian cosmism is the connection between humans and space. This paradigm unexpectedly chimes with the wisdom passed on in the myths and legends of various ancient cultures, including the Chinese civilisation.

The Chinese Fairy Tales cluster took pride of place within the larger COSMODREAMS series for a reason. China is one of the most amazing and mysterious countries of the world. The birthplace of papermaking and book printing, gunpowder and compass, silk, and porcelain, as well as many other useful inventions and discoveries has always been a true magnet for historians, explorers, travellers, and of course artists. To a person from a different culture, this unique oriental tradition seems like a universe of its own. A great country boasting three millennia of cultural history, China is a place where tradition harmoniously blends with cutting-edge technology.

The paintings within this cluster illustrate various legends lying at the heart of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. The Artist creates something akin to a shot-by-shot breakdown of the ancient story.

The very title of the first painting in the series, Ten Suns, alludes to the Chinese legend about the ten celestial bodies that caused disasters and misfortunes. The story behind the artwork seems to dovetail with the premises of the Russian cosmism.

The vertically arranged picture with its S-shaped composition reminiscent of a wavy dragon spine produces a dynamic effect. This visual structure allows the Artist to create the illusion of spinning circles symbolising the ten suns of the Chinese legend. Appearing in the foreground and central to the composition is a disk-shaped unidentified flying object. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but in fact it was the point of departure for a whole new cluster within the COSMODREAMS project. The spaceship pictured here has either just landed on the picturesque land of China or has long since become part of its landscape. The Artist uses this element to spin a time-spanning story and extend it long into the future. The link of times can also be traced in the vertical composition dominated by mountains and inspired by the traditional Chinese ink paintings in which the mountainous ranges stood for the supporting pillars of creation representing on Earth the eternal Sky, the Skyward Path, the very pinnacle from which the Time itself comes pouring down. Humans have always considered such places as the abode of spirit and the symbol of inner peace.

The Artist uses a relatively monochrome colour palette avoiding extreme brightness: the shades chosen to tell the story are cool and subdued, suggesting emotional detachment, chilling clarity, a time stood still. It seems as if the creator of the painting were merely an observer, watching on as the plot develops. The traditional tales passed down through millennia, along with their decoded meanings, have already become part of the nation’s cultural DNA and will likely go on.

Two other important paintings of the Chinese Fairy Tales cluster are The Last Sun and Moon Festival. They continue the storyline of the oriental folk tale. The Last Sun, with its vivid bright colours and large male and female figures at the centre reminds one of a smart contemporary media poster or a stylish advertisement for a social cause spreading important cultural values. The picture illustrates a poignant legend of the power of love between a man and a woman, with the sun and the moon embodying the male and the female principles respectively.

The Artist expertly directs the viewer’s gaze, locking it right from the start on the brightest point at the very centre of the painting – the blazing sun serving as its backdrop and symbolising fire and majesty. The circle fit into the square composition sets it in spiralling motion and imparts dynamism to the picture. The meticulously painted male and female figures, apart from referencing the legendary Hou Yi and Chang’e, also put one in mind of the iconic yin and yang image denoting the relationship of the two opposites – light and darkness, day and night, the sun and the moon. The characters’ hands are interlocked, creating yet another circular motif within the picture – once again visualising the cyclical movement, the strong interrelation of the opposites forming an integral whole.

The second picture of the duo, Moon Festival, resembles the closing frame in a beautiful feature film. The viewer’s attention is drawn to the beautiful face of the girl and her observant eyes. The Artist creates the sensation of freely breathing wind and moving air by accurately rendering the strands of hair falling on the female character’s face. The dynamics of the picture is further reinforced by the use of bright contrasting colours against a dark background as well as its triangular composition. This triangle seems to direct the general upward motion. One look at the canvas is enough to realise that the vivid yellow brushstrokes represent the iconic Chinese lanterns. This is part of the mesmerising ritual accompanying each Moon Festival. The magical feeling is enhanced by the reflections of light painted on the water.

The borderline between land and water divides the painting in two. The viewer’s initial gaze meets the attentive eyes of the Moon Goddess, sweeps further to reach the waterline in the left corner, follows the horizon, and then rises again. The Artist thus directs the viewers’ eyes along this mentally constructed triangle, culminating at the top where they once again meet the eyes of Chang’e. We keep returning to this observant stare – yet another symbol of nature’s cycles, the motion of planets in their courses, and the change of seasons. The moon renews each month, forcing the humans to feel the effects of the cosmic order.

New Shanghai 3 is another important and striking painting in the series. Here, Ms. Fedorova once again depicts an urban landscape, but this time we observe it not from the outside but seemingly from the inside, as if belonging here. Utilising an elongated horizontal format, the Artist conveys the sensation of a wide open space. This format is ideal for demonstrating the action unfolding on several planes, while the diagonal composition imparts dynamic movement. The Artist shows the life of the city by putting to use the classical devices used to render movement, juxtaposing several different elements in one picture, intentionally painting certain details with a shifting effect, and avoiding perfect alignment of the triptych parts. In addition, she conveys the sensation of a blowing wind by carefully painting the protagonists’ windswept hair. The wind ruffles the girl’s hairdo and the soft fir of the other important character – the nine-tailed fox.

Ms. Fedorova finds this mythical creature from Chinese tales very appealing and recalls the ancient legend: the wise thousand-year-old fox can only appear at times when the world is at peace. In this respect, the female figure turns out to be a reincarnation of the mythical animal, as well as the link between the parts of the Chinese cosmogony triad: the Sky, the Earth, and the human world. Thus, the Artist references the concept of unity of the macro- and microcosms, also reflected in various myths about the origin of the world and humans.

Alongside the central images of the girl and the mythical fox, the viewer’s attention is focused on the two astronaut figures and two planets that uphold the recurring space theme of the series. This symmetry and duality are yet another manifestation of the balance and harmony between the two opposites.

Another urban landscape painted by Ms. Marina Fedorova for the series, Golden Gate, features a prominent landmark of Chengdu City, the Anshun Bridge, that has retained its original location and traditional design since the 13th century, despite the many renovations and the modern urban developments surrounding it. The imaginary cityscape illustrates the emergence of a new and yet unknown world. For this painting, the Artist chose her signature alla prima technique, swiftly capturing a fleeting emotional state triggered by reflections on the issue of immediate concern. She renders an imaginary cityscape that seems to attest to a successful colonisation of faraway planets and building of a new civilisation while preserving the national identity and culture of every ethnic group. That is why the painting’s eye-catching centrepiece is the golden gate complete with architectural elements that bear distinct ethnic features. In almost any culture, gates have traditionally symbolised the point of transition between worlds. In Ms. Fedorova’s painting, they indicate a passage into a new world accessible only to those who are ready to undergo an internal transformation in order to become part of the future.

Visible in the background is a large contemporary metropolis painted in green, nearly emerald hues. The Artist seems to have chosen these colours to accentuate the symbolic meaning of a new beginning, create an image of growth and development of a new civilisation far away from Earth. Full of energy and glow, the city is teeming with a fresh life force. This unrealistic, imaginary realm becomes part of the cosmic landscape and universal space, offering a glimpse not of the sunrises and sunsets that Earth dwellers are accustomed to, but of beautiful space nebulae, giving humans a chance to experience nature afresh. The Artist emphasises her subject matter by choosing a strikingly dark backdrop for the sky – the colour of the endless and unknown extraterrestrial space.

The irreality of the landscape is underscored by the three planets appearing in the sky. It is evident that this city belongs to a gravitationally bound system of some other major star.

The Black Egg painting takes the viewer on a journey into a world of magic, to some non-existent, fairytale place. This feeling is reinforced by the Artist’s choice of unusual shades of blue and violet rarely found in this particular combination in the world we are used to. This is an alternative reality, a mirage that might remain unattainable, more like a hologram than a real place, unless mankind changes its attitude towards nature – the source of all living things on Earth.

Painstakingly rendered with much detail are the magical flowers and the forest overgrown with ferns, sacral and mysterious. We see a world in which a life of its own takes place in parallel time, and something new is being born.

The Artist invites us to travel to a fantasy universe and stroll through this imaginary forest. Just like the Symbolists in the early 20th century, Ms. Fedorova manages to convey profound meanings using a simple and accessible story.

In Moon Pandas, the viewer’s attention is immediately drawn to the images of cute animals epitomising peace and friendship. Pandas are adored the world over, thought to embody delicacy, harmony, and trust. The Artist depicts these charming creatures inside a domed glass greenhouse. The black and white bears set against a brightly coloured, somewhat idealistic background seem to want for nothing: their every need is met, with plenty of bamboo, flowers, and foliage provided.

The pandas themselves bring out only positive emotions and tenderness. Nevertheless, one can’t help noticing that, instead of enjoying a bright sunny day in their natural habitat, the animals are pictured against a cosmic background. Beyond this glass dome is the open space, a realm that is still uncharted territory for mankind, at the same time intriguing and – like all things unknown – subconsciously threatening. The Artist intentionally places these sweet creatures inside a space greenhouse: it symbolises her desire to preserve human warmth and affection, inner harmony, and integrity of soul no matter what living environment awaits humans in the future.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Russian Fairy Tales

The first paintings in this series emerged in 2023 as a result of the Artist’s observations concerning global political developments. In the times of such radical shifts, people often turn to the past, looking for historical solutions to the current economic, social, political, and cultural issues.

Historical background has always provided the key reference point for one’s worldview, and every time it is recontextualised signals the resurgence of a nation’s historical consciousness and self-awareness. The desire to get back to the roots often has to do with a pressing need for a renewed sense of a personal or national identity. The age of postmodernist questing and global civilisational transformation gives rise to a phenomenon defined by various scholars as the ‘return to the roots’ or ‘back to the source.’ Here, historical facts, legendary and folkloric narratives are reinterpreted according to the challenges of a new reality.

In this series, Ms. Marina Fedorova addresses popular pagan and Old Slavic imagery, especially that surviving in the form of epic and fairy tales traditionally told to the Russian children generation after generation. Finding herself in search of an internal holding ground and viable source of identity, the Artist finds moral support in the national folklore and draws inspiration from the characters known since childhood times.

The large-scale oil-on-canvas paintings are illustrative and theatrical in nature. The Artist captures her characters in a certain attitude and at a specific point of the story, giving each one of them pride of place in the overall composition. Infiltrating traditional imagery with recognisable everyday objects and household items of the 21st century, she arrives at a new visual sensibility perceived through the prism of the present day. Ms. Fedorova places her folktale and mythological subjects in a metamodernist context, marrying the traditional and historical with the currently relevant and creating imagery designed to conform to the new storyline unfolding inside her mind. The painter narrates her own fairy tales, at times coming up with an apocalyptic plot for the ancient characters to raise awareness of such problems as depletion of traditions, breakdown of continuity, and loss of connection to the source of folk culture.

Ms. Fedorva treats the first work in the series as a stage act, infusing it with an atmosphere of a chaotic theatrical backdrop reinforced by the vibrant and flamboyant, at times even garish palette and plenty of symbolic and cultural references. Permanently residing in Munich, Germany, the Artist managed to get hold of a traditional Russian female outfit consisting of a sarafan dress and kokoshnik headpiece, proceeding to commission a forest photo shoot, trying on the role of a Russian folktale character. This role play provides an opportunity to simultaneously create an unusual self-portrait and revisit her national roots. As a result, we see the Artist in a fairytale context surrounded by clichéd imagery long since associated with Russian culture: an embroidered red sarafan and kokoshnik, a brown bear, a matryoshka doll, and deep woods through which one is able to see the recognisable outlines of the Moscow Kremlin. Another stereotyped motif is that of a wooden hut surrounded by a fence decorated with human skulls – an obvious allusion to the netherworld and Baba Yaga as its constant dweller.

Giving centre stage to the female protagonist, the Artist emphasises the humans’ leading role and narcissistic nature, although traditional pre-Christian beliefs never treated men as the pinnacle of creation, instructing them to live in harmony with nature while being an integral part of the Universe. Visually dividing the painting’s space in two, the Artist symbolically depicts Slavic cosmology with its multiple realms in a state of constant interaction, primarily those of men and of the otherworldly beings appearing in fairy and epic tales.

Using unnaturally vibrant colours to highlight some of the painted elements – like for instance the ferns – Ms. Fedorova established a visible borderline between the two worlds, long closed to the modern-day people by virtue of changed beliefs and new values and domains of focus, including the Internet, the outer space, metaphysical realms, social media, and virtual reality. Pictured next to the Russian beauty we see robots as attributes of the modern civilisation. In the present day, they act as the magical animals of yore that used to perform the tasks of helping and guiding the main fairytale characters, assisting them in their difficult exploits.

Behind the female protagonist we see a bear painted with subdued hues and thus also appearing ghostly and otherworldly. Within the archaic belief system, the bear was perceived as the most supernaturally powerful animal on par with the wolf. He was the principal figure and ruler of the transcendental. Believed to be the lord of the otherworldly, the bear was associated with abundance, fertility, and sexuality. The Slavs viewed this animal as a human being, albeit belonging to a different ‘tribe.’ In certain folktales, references can be traced to an ancient legend about a bear taking a girl lost in the woods as his wife (echoes of which survive, for instance, in Masha and the Bear children’s story), which perhaps can account for the Artist depicting herself as a Russian beauty in the woods with a bear standing guard behind her back to protect her. Modern-day men certainly possess other skills, but have lost their connection to the bear-like power manifested in the now-defunct tradition of initiation rites symbolising the acceptance of natural forces of the animal required for survival (like the hunting prowess needed to provide for the family). In its turn, the understanding of the woman’s role in contemporary world has also seen major transformations, as reflected in other works of Ms. Fedorova’s series, like for example the Swan Lady.

Richly decorated with golden patterns and widely accepted as the archetypal Russian toy (although in fact harking back to the ancient Japanese culture), the matryoshka doll acts here as a source of aggression and hostility: the metal braces that hold her in place suggest a sadistic disorder associated with intentionally inducing fear and pain in victims unused to accepting the subversive aspects of the traditional folk culture.

The artwork’s title speaks of its surreal, fantasy-like nature, pronouncing a desire to escape from the harsh realities into a fairytale world. An obvious reference to Salvador Dalí’s Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, it reiterates the great Surrealist’s approach to both the creative process and the way of dealing with various current events. As such, an attempt of the archaic characters to populate the domain of modernity with its new rules shaped by religious consciousness and globalisation is seen as surreal.

A highly allusive artwork from the Fairy Tales series, Swan Lady redefines the way women are perceived and portrayed in the 21st century, creating an impression contrasting to that invoked by its predecessor, The Swan Princess by Mikhail Vrubel. Contrary to Vrubel, the contemporary painter tends to gauge the present against the past, and not vice versa. Just like in the historical painting, the moment pictured by Ms. Marina Fedorova is that of a magical transformation in which the real meets the fictional, underscoring the dual nature of the bird maiden. Just like her great Russian forerunner, the contemporary Artist chose a particular colour palette corresponding to a specific time of day, the only marked difference being that the new Swan Princess is rendered against a wintery background indicating not just a season but a metaphor for the afterlife: within the traditional culture, winter was associated with severe weather conditions that not everyone was fit to survive. The North was the abode of ancestor souls where a living person was forbidden to tread (interestingly, the blessed souls of the ancient Egyptian kings were also believed to migrate North, in the direction of the Polaris).

Ms. Marina Fedorova paints the world anew, foregrounding the bleeding Swan Princess devoid of her soul. The Artist intentionally leaves the protagonist’s eyes blank: black and lifeless, they are overrun by horrifying darkness, as the Princess has become an empty soulless shell, retaining all but a trace of her identity which can be recognised by elements of her folk costume. The character is apparently frozen in the state of transformation – a kind of human-to-animal or human-to-bird metamorphosis that is reflected in various shape-shifter legends echoing the ancient worship of totemic animals and witchcraft requiring special rituals, invocations, or magic objects. In folklore, such metamorphoses seem to allude to initiation rites, indicating a ceremonial passage between different stages of human life; in this case, for instance, the girl gaining birdlike traits was transitioning to adulthood and subsequent wifedom as swans are believed to mate for life. It is after this magical transformation signifying ritual initiation that a young girl would be ready for and capable of transitioning to a new status of a married woman. The avian symbolism also establishes links between the female character and the mythical celestial birds producing light and warmth, redefining the ancient connection between nature and the woman’s unique calling as a life-giver. Addressing this archaic image, Ms. Fedorova speaks of the broken connection to the natural forces and capacities manifested in the character’s inability to transfigure. In the Artist’s version, the Swan Princess is stuck at the stage of initiation, no longer a bird, but not yet a powerful female ruler invested with responsibility for her own home and household represented by an entire kingdom sheltering all living beings. Also worth noting is the fact that the princess is bleeding at the abdomen – the source of all things according to ancient beliefs, the place of inception and growth of a new life, here visually signals a disruption of the timeless life continuation cycle.

The painting is replete with symbolism: the egg and treasure chest seen in its left part by the Swan Princess’s feet reference the mystery of death of Koshchei the Immortal, the archetypal male antagonist in Russian fairy tales, and for a good reason. These objects allude to the sacral rituals traditionally performed to symbolically ‘bury’ winter and usher in the spring renewal, with the figure of Koshchei representing the lord of the underworld, the spirit of winter and death ultimately conquered by a girl who has the power to transform into a bird (either a little duck or the Swan Princess, depending on the specific narrative) signifying her role as the allegory of spring and blossoming. These images are easily deciphered and interpreted by a viewer rooted in the Russian culture, while their sacral significance prompts one to reflect on the picture’s other encrypted meanings.

Toward the background of her Swan Lady painting, Ms. Marina Fedorova chose to add another quintessential feature instantly recognisable by the Russian viewers. It is the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl – the strikingly beautiful architectural monument dating back to the 12th century and built at the heart of medieval Russia, in the village of Bogolyubovo in the Vladimir Oblast. The church was commissioned by Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky to commemorate the death of his son Iziaslav who had sustained deadly injuries during a military expedition. Thus the beautiful airy structure that seems to float above the ground not only acts as a place of religious worship but doubles as a funerary and commemorative edifice. In this way the painting superimposes the symbols associated with pagan beliefs and still retained in folklore and fairy tales with the later Russian Orthodox tradition, and finally modern-day agenda epitomised by the plane about to soar above the church and thus bring the viewer back to the current reality.

The ‘fairytale’ series wraps up the imagery seen by the Artist as being specific to the Russian culture, belonging to the nation’s semiotic system and cultural code. All paintings containing references to Russian fairy tales (and subsequently the folktales of other traditions) are symbolically rich and highly characteristic of their creator’s vision. The Artist’s distinctive interpretations and associations coupled with the challenges of the present moment create new tales and stories rooted in the historic past.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Russian Fairy Tales

The first paintings in this series emerged in 2023 as a result of the Artist’s observations concerning global political developments. In the times of such radical shifts, people often turn to the past, looking for historical solutions to the current economic, social, political, and cultural issues.

Historical background has always provided the key reference point for one’s worldview, and every time it is recontextualised signals the resurgence of a nation’s historical consciousness and self-awareness. The desire to get back to the roots often has to do with a pressing need for a renewed sense of a personal or national identity. The age of postmodernist questing and global civilisational transformation gives rise to a phenomenon defined by various scholars as the ‘return to the roots’ or ‘back to the source.’ Here, historical facts, legendary and folkloric narratives are reinterpreted according to the challenges of a new reality.

In this series, Ms. Marina Fedorova addresses popular pagan and Old Slavic imagery, especially that surviving in the form of epic and fairy tales traditionally told to the Russian children generation after generation. Finding herself in search of an internal holding ground and viable source of identity, the Artist finds moral support in the national folklore and draws inspiration from the characters known since childhood times.

The large-scale oil-on-canvas paintings are illustrative and theatrical in nature. The Artist captures her characters in a certain attitude and at a specific point of the story, giving each one of them pride of place in the overall composition. Infiltrating traditional imagery with recognisable everyday objects and household items of the 21st century, she arrives at a new visual sensibility perceived through the prism of the present day. Ms. Fedorova places her folktale and mythological subjects in a metamodernist context, marrying the traditional and historical with the currently relevant and creating imagery designed to conform to the new storyline unfolding inside her mind. The painter narrates her own fairy tales, at times coming up with an apocalyptic plot for the ancient characters to raise awareness of such problems as depletion of traditions, breakdown of continuity, and loss of connection to the source of folk culture.

Ms. Fedorva treats the first work in the series as a stage act, infusing it with an atmosphere of a chaotic theatrical backdrop reinforced by the vibrant and flamboyant, at times even garish palette and plenty of symbolic and cultural references. Permanently residing in Munich, Germany, the Artist managed to get hold of a traditional Russian female outfit consisting of a sarafan dress and kokoshnik headpiece, proceeding to commission a forest photo shoot, trying on the role of a Russian folktale character. This role play provides an opportunity to simultaneously create an unusual self-portrait and revisit her national roots. As a result, we see the Artist in a fairytale context surrounded by clichéd imagery long since associated with Russian culture: an embroidered red sarafan and kokoshnik, a brown bear, a matryoshka doll, and deep woods through which one is able to see the recognisable outlines of the Moscow Kremlin. Another stereotyped motif is that of a wooden hut surrounded by a fence decorated with human skulls – an obvious allusion to the netherworld and Baba Yaga as its constant dweller.

Giving centre stage to the female protagonist, the Artist emphasises the humans’ leading role and narcissistic nature, although traditional pre-Christian beliefs never treated men as the pinnacle of creation, instructing them to live in harmony with nature while being an integral part of the Universe. Visually dividing the painting’s space in two, the Artist symbolically depicts Slavic cosmology with its multiple realms in a state of constant interaction, primarily those of men and of the otherworldly beings appearing in fairy and epic tales.

Using unnaturally vibrant colours to highlight some of the painted elements – like for instance the ferns – Ms. Fedorova established a visible borderline between the two worlds, long closed to the modern-day people by virtue of changed beliefs and new values and domains of focus, including the Internet, the outer space, metaphysical realms, social media, and virtual reality. Pictured next to the Russian beauty we see robots as attributes of the modern civilisation. In the present day, they act as the magical animals of yore that used to perform the tasks of helping and guiding the main fairytale characters, assisting them in their difficult exploits.

Behind the female protagonist we see a bear painted with subdued hues and thus also appearing ghostly and otherworldly. Within the archaic belief system, the bear was perceived as the most supernaturally powerful animal on par with the wolf. He was the principal figure and ruler of the transcendental. Believed to be the lord of the otherworldly, the bear was associated with abundance, fertility, and sexuality. The Slavs viewed this animal as a human being, albeit belonging to a different ‘tribe.’ In certain folktales, references can be traced to an ancient legend about a bear taking a girl lost in the woods as his wife (echoes of which survive, for instance, in Masha and the Bear children’s story), which perhaps can account for the Artist depicting herself as a Russian beauty in the woods with a bear standing guard behind her back to protect her. Modern-day men certainly possess other skills, but have lost their connection to the bear-like power manifested in the now-defunct tradition of initiation rites symbolising the acceptance of natural forces of the animal required for survival (like the hunting prowess needed to provide for the family). In its turn, the understanding of the woman’s role in contemporary world has also seen major transformations, as reflected in other works of Ms. Fedorova’s series, like for example the Swan Lady.

Richly decorated with golden patterns and widely accepted as the archetypal Russian toy (although in fact harking back to the ancient Japanese culture), the matryoshka doll acts here as a source of aggression and hostility: the metal braces that hold her in place suggest a sadistic disorder associated with intentionally inducing fear and pain in victims unused to accepting the subversive aspects of the traditional folk culture.

The artwork’s title speaks of its surreal, fantasy-like nature, pronouncing a desire to escape from the harsh realities into a fairytale world. An obvious reference to Salvador Dalí’s Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, it reiterates the great Surrealist’s approach to both the creative process and the way of dealing with various current events. As such, an attempt of the archaic characters to populate the domain of modernity with its new rules shaped by religious consciousness and globalisation is seen as surreal.

A highly allusive artwork from the Fairy Tales series, Swan Lady redefines the way women are perceived and portrayed in the 21st century, creating an impression contrasting to that invoked by its predecessor, The Swan Princess by Mikhail Vrubel. Contrary to Vrubel, the contemporary painter tends to gauge the present against the past, and not vice versa. Just like in the historical painting, the moment pictured by Ms. Marina Fedorova is that of a magical transformation in which the real meets the fictional, underscoring the dual nature of the bird maiden. Just like her great Russian forerunner, the contemporary Artist chose a particular colour palette corresponding to a specific time of day, the only marked difference being that the new Swan Princess is rendered against a wintery background indicating not just a season but a metaphor for the afterlife: within the traditional culture, winter was associated with severe weather conditions that not everyone was fit to survive. The North was the abode of ancestor souls where a living person was forbidden to tread (interestingly, the blessed souls of the ancient Egyptian kings were also believed to migrate North, in the direction of the Polaris).

Ms. Marina Fedorova paints the world anew, foregrounding the bleeding Swan Princess devoid of her soul. The Artist intentionally leaves the protagonist’s eyes blank: black and lifeless, they are overrun by horrifying darkness, as the Princess has become an empty soulless shell, retaining all but a trace of her identity which can be recognised by elements of her folk costume. The character is apparently frozen in the state of transformation – a kind of human-to-animal or human-to-bird metamorphosis that is reflected in various shape-shifter legends echoing the ancient worship of totemic animals and witchcraft requiring special rituals, invocations, or magic objects. In folklore, such metamorphoses seem to allude to initiation rites, indicating a ceremonial passage between different stages of human life; in this case, for instance, the girl gaining birdlike traits was transitioning to adulthood and subsequent wifedom as swans are believed to mate for life. It is after this magical transformation signifying ritual initiation that a young girl would be ready for and capable of transitioning to a new status of a married woman. The avian symbolism also establishes links between the female character and the mythical celestial birds producing light and warmth, redefining the ancient connection between nature and the woman’s unique calling as a life-giver. Addressing this archaic image, Ms. Fedorova speaks of the broken connection to the natural forces and capacities manifested in the character’s inability to transfigure. In the Artist’s version, the Swan Princess is stuck at the stage of initiation, no longer a bird, but not yet a powerful female ruler invested with responsibility for her own home and household represented by an entire kingdom sheltering all living beings. Also worth noting is the fact that the princess is bleeding at the abdomen – the source of all things according to ancient beliefs, the place of inception and growth of a new life, here visually signals a disruption of the timeless life continuation cycle.

The painting is replete with symbolism: the egg and treasure chest seen in its left part by the Swan Princess’s feet reference the mystery of death of Koshchei the Immortal, the archetypal male antagonist in Russian fairy tales, and for a good reason. These objects allude to the sacral rituals traditionally performed to symbolically ‘bury’ winter and usher in the spring renewal, with the figure of Koshchei representing the lord of the underworld, the spirit of winter and death ultimately conquered by a girl who has the power to transform into a bird (either a little duck or the Swan Princess, depending on the specific narrative) signifying her role as the allegory of spring and blossoming. These images are easily deciphered and interpreted by a viewer rooted in the Russian culture, while their sacral significance prompts one to reflect on the picture’s other encrypted meanings.

Toward the background of her Swan Lady painting, Ms. Marina Fedorova chose to add another quintessential feature instantly recognisable by the Russian viewers. It is the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl – the strikingly beautiful architectural monument dating back to the 12th century and built at the heart of medieval Russia, in the village of Bogolyubovo in the Vladimir Oblast. The church was commissioned by Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky to commemorate the death of his son Iziaslav who had sustained deadly injuries during a military expedition. Thus the beautiful airy structure that seems to float above the ground not only acts as a place of religious worship but doubles as a funerary and commemorative edifice. In this way the painting superimposes the symbols associated with pagan beliefs and still retained in folklore and fairy tales with the later Russian Orthodox tradition, and finally modern-day agenda epitomised by the plane about to soar above the church and thus bring the viewer back to the current reality.

The ‘fairytale’ series wraps up the imagery seen by the Artist as being specific to the Russian culture, belonging to the nation’s semiotic system and cultural code. All paintings containing references to Russian fairy tales (and subsequently the folktales of other traditions) are symbolically rich and highly characteristic of their creator’s vision. The Artist’s distinctive interpretations and associations coupled with the challenges of the present moment create new tales and stories rooted in the historic past.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Russian Fairy Tales

The first paintings in this series emerged in 2023 as a result of the Artist’s observations concerning global political developments. In the times of such radical shifts, people often turn to the past, looking for historical solutions to the current economic, social, political, and cultural issues.

Historical background has always provided the key reference point for one’s worldview, and every time it is recontextualised signals the resurgence of a nation’s historical consciousness and self-awareness. The desire to get back to the roots often has to do with a pressing need for a renewed sense of a personal or national identity. The age of postmodernist questing and global civilisational transformation gives rise to a phenomenon defined by various scholars as the ‘return to the roots’ or ‘back to the source.’ Here, historical facts, legendary and folkloric narratives are reinterpreted according to the challenges of a new reality.

In this series, Ms. Marina Fedorova addresses popular pagan and Old Slavic imagery, especially that surviving in the form of epic and fairy tales traditionally told to the Russian children generation after generation. Finding herself in search of an internal holding ground and viable source of identity, the Artist finds moral support in the national folklore and draws inspiration from the characters known since childhood times.

The large-scale oil-on-canvas paintings are illustrative and theatrical in nature. The Artist captures her characters in a certain attitude and at a specific point of the story, giving each one of them pride of place in the overall composition. Infiltrating traditional imagery with recognisable everyday objects and household items of the 21st century, she arrives at a new visual sensibility perceived through the prism of the present day. Ms. Fedorova places her folktale and mythological subjects in a metamodernist context, marrying the traditional and historical with the currently relevant and creating imagery designed to conform to the new storyline unfolding inside her mind. The painter narrates her own fairy tales, at times coming up with an apocalyptic plot for the ancient characters to raise awareness of such problems as depletion of traditions, breakdown of continuity, and loss of connection to the source of folk culture.

Ms. Fedorva treats the first work in the series as a stage act, infusing it with an atmosphere of a chaotic theatrical backdrop reinforced by the vibrant and flamboyant, at times even garish palette and plenty of symbolic and cultural references. Permanently residing in Munich, Germany, the Artist managed to get hold of a traditional Russian female outfit consisting of a sarafan dress and kokoshnik headpiece, proceeding to commission a forest photo shoot, trying on the role of a Russian folktale character. This role play provides an opportunity to simultaneously create an unusual self-portrait and revisit her national roots. As a result, we see the Artist in a fairytale context surrounded by clichéd imagery long since associated with Russian culture: an embroidered red sarafan and kokoshnik, a brown bear, a matryoshka doll, and deep woods through which one is able to see the recognisable outlines of the Moscow Kremlin. Another stereotyped motif is that of a wooden hut surrounded by a fence decorated with human skulls – an obvious allusion to the netherworld and Baba Yaga as its constant dweller.

Giving centre stage to the female protagonist, the Artist emphasises the humans’ leading role and narcissistic nature, although traditional pre-Christian beliefs never treated men as the pinnacle of creation, instructing them to live in harmony with nature while being an integral part of the Universe. Visually dividing the painting’s space in two, the Artist symbolically depicts Slavic cosmology with its multiple realms in a state of constant interaction, primarily those of men and of the otherworldly beings appearing in fairy and epic tales.

Using unnaturally vibrant colours to highlight some of the painted elements – like for instance the ferns – Ms. Fedorova established a visible borderline between the two worlds, long closed to the modern-day people by virtue of changed beliefs and new values and domains of focus, including the Internet, the outer space, metaphysical realms, social media, and virtual reality. Pictured next to the Russian beauty we see robots as attributes of the modern civilisation. In the present day, they act as the magical animals of yore that used to perform the tasks of helping and guiding the main fairytale characters, assisting them in their difficult exploits.

Behind the female protagonist we see a bear painted with subdued hues and thus also appearing ghostly and otherworldly. Within the archaic belief system, the bear was perceived as the most supernaturally powerful animal on par with the wolf. He was the principal figure and ruler of the transcendental. Believed to be the lord of the otherworldly, the bear was associated with abundance, fertility, and sexuality. The Slavs viewed this animal as a human being, albeit belonging to a different ‘tribe.’ In certain folktales, references can be traced to an ancient legend about a bear taking a girl lost in the woods as his wife (echoes of which survive, for instance, in Masha and the Bear children’s story), which perhaps can account for the Artist depicting herself as a Russian beauty in the woods with a bear standing guard behind her back to protect her. Modern-day men certainly possess other skills, but have lost their connection to the bear-like power manifested in the now-defunct tradition of initiation rites symbolising the acceptance of natural forces of the animal required for survival (like the hunting prowess needed to provide for the family). In its turn, the understanding of the woman’s role in contemporary world has also seen major transformations, as reflected in other works of Ms. Fedorova’s series, like for example the Swan Lady.

Richly decorated with golden patterns and widely accepted as the archetypal Russian toy (although in fact harking back to the ancient Japanese culture), the matryoshka doll acts here as a source of aggression and hostility: the metal braces that hold her in place suggest a sadistic disorder associated with intentionally inducing fear and pain in victims unused to accepting the subversive aspects of the traditional folk culture.

The artwork’s title speaks of its surreal, fantasy-like nature, pronouncing a desire to escape from the harsh realities into a fairytale world. An obvious reference to Salvador Dalí’s Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, it reiterates the great Surrealist’s approach to both the creative process and the way of dealing with various current events. As such, an attempt of the archaic characters to populate the domain of modernity with its new rules shaped by religious consciousness and globalisation is seen as surreal.

A highly allusive artwork from the Fairy Tales series, Swan Lady redefines the way women are perceived and portrayed in the 21st century, creating an impression contrasting to that invoked by its predecessor, The Swan Princess by Mikhail Vrubel. Contrary to Vrubel, the contemporary painter tends to gauge the present against the past, and not vice versa. Just like in the historical painting, the moment pictured by Ms. Marina Fedorova is that of a magical transformation in which the real meets the fictional, underscoring the dual nature of the bird maiden. Just like her great Russian forerunner, the contemporary Artist chose a particular colour palette corresponding to a specific time of day, the only marked difference being that the new Swan Princess is rendered against a wintery background indicating not just a season but a metaphor for the afterlife: within the traditional culture, winter was associated with severe weather conditions that not everyone was fit to survive. The North was the abode of ancestor souls where a living person was forbidden to tread (interestingly, the blessed souls of the ancient Egyptian kings were also believed to migrate North, in the direction of the Polaris).

Ms. Marina Fedorova paints the world anew, foregrounding the bleeding Swan Princess devoid of her soul. The Artist intentionally leaves the protagonist’s eyes blank: black and lifeless, they are overrun by horrifying darkness, as the Princess has become an empty soulless shell, retaining all but a trace of her identity which can be recognised by elements of her folk costume. The character is apparently frozen in the state of transformation – a kind of human-to-animal or human-to-bird metamorphosis that is reflected in various shape-shifter legends echoing the ancient worship of totemic animals and witchcraft requiring special rituals, invocations, or magic objects. In folklore, such metamorphoses seem to allude to initiation rites, indicating a ceremonial passage between different stages of human life; in this case, for instance, the girl gaining birdlike traits was transitioning to adulthood and subsequent wifedom as swans are believed to mate for life. It is after this magical transformation signifying ritual initiation that a young girl would be ready for and capable of transitioning to a new status of a married woman. The avian symbolism also establishes links between the female character and the mythical celestial birds producing light and warmth, redefining the ancient connection between nature and the woman’s unique calling as a life-giver. Addressing this archaic image, Ms. Fedorova speaks of the broken connection to the natural forces and capacities manifested in the character’s inability to transfigure. In the Artist’s version, the Swan Princess is stuck at the stage of initiation, no longer a bird, but not yet a powerful female ruler invested with responsibility for her own home and household represented by an entire kingdom sheltering all living beings. Also worth noting is the fact that the princess is bleeding at the abdomen – the source of all things according to ancient beliefs, the place of inception and growth of a new life, here visually signals a disruption of the timeless life continuation cycle.

The painting is replete with symbolism: the egg and treasure chest seen in its left part by the Swan Princess’s feet reference the mystery of death of Koshchei the Immortal, the archetypal male antagonist in Russian fairy tales, and for a good reason. These objects allude to the sacral rituals traditionally performed to symbolically ‘bury’ winter and usher in the spring renewal, with the figure of Koshchei representing the lord of the underworld, the spirit of winter and death ultimately conquered by a girl who has the power to transform into a bird (either a little duck or the Swan Princess, depending on the specific narrative) signifying her role as the allegory of spring and blossoming. These images are easily deciphered and interpreted by a viewer rooted in the Russian culture, while their sacral significance prompts one to reflect on the picture’s other encrypted meanings.

Toward the background of her Swan Lady painting, Ms. Marina Fedorova chose to add another quintessential feature instantly recognisable by the Russian viewers. It is the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl – the strikingly beautiful architectural monument dating back to the 12th century and built at the heart of medieval Russia, in the village of Bogolyubovo in the Vladimir Oblast. The church was commissioned by Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky to commemorate the death of his son Iziaslav who had sustained deadly injuries during a military expedition. Thus the beautiful airy structure that seems to float above the ground not only acts as a place of religious worship but doubles as a funerary and commemorative edifice. In this way the painting superimposes the symbols associated with pagan beliefs and still retained in folklore and fairy tales with the later Russian Orthodox tradition, and finally modern-day agenda epitomised by the plane about to soar above the church and thus bring the viewer back to the current reality.

The ‘fairytale’ series wraps up the imagery seen by the Artist as being specific to the Russian culture, belonging to the nation’s semiotic system and cultural code. All paintings containing references to Russian fairy tales (and subsequently the folktales of other traditions) are symbolically rich and highly characteristic of their creator’s vision. The Artist’s distinctive interpretations and associations coupled with the challenges of the present moment create new tales and stories rooted in the historic past.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Russian Fairy Tales

The first paintings in this series emerged in 2023 as a result of the Artist’s observations concerning global political developments. In the times of such radical shifts, people often turn to the past, looking for historical solutions to the current economic, social, political, and cultural issues.

Historical background has always provided the key reference point for one’s worldview, and every time it is recontextualised signals the resurgence of a nation’s historical consciousness and self-awareness. The desire to get back to the roots often has to do with a pressing need for a renewed sense of a personal or national identity. The age of postmodernist questing and global civilisational transformation gives rise to a phenomenon defined by various scholars as the ‘return to the roots’ or ‘back to the source.’ Here, historical facts, legendary and folkloric narratives are reinterpreted according to the challenges of a new reality.

In this series, Ms. Marina Fedorova addresses popular pagan and Old Slavic imagery, especially that surviving in the form of epic and fairy tales traditionally told to the Russian children generation after generation. Finding herself in search of an internal holding ground and viable source of identity, the Artist finds moral support in the national folklore and draws inspiration from the characters known since childhood times.

The large-scale oil-on-canvas paintings are illustrative and theatrical in nature. The Artist captures her characters in a certain attitude and at a specific point of the story, giving each one of them pride of place in the overall composition. Infiltrating traditional imagery with recognisable everyday objects and household items of the 21st century, she arrives at a new visual sensibility perceived through the prism of the present day. Ms. Fedorova places her folktale and mythological subjects in a metamodernist context, marrying the traditional and historical with the currently relevant and creating imagery designed to conform to the new storyline unfolding inside her mind. The painter narrates her own fairy tales, at times coming up with an apocalyptic plot for the ancient characters to raise awareness of such problems as depletion of traditions, breakdown of continuity, and loss of connection to the source of folk culture.

Ms. Fedorva treats the first work in the series as a stage act, infusing it with an atmosphere of a chaotic theatrical backdrop reinforced by the vibrant and flamboyant, at times even garish palette and plenty of symbolic and cultural references. Permanently residing in Munich, Germany, the Artist managed to get hold of a traditional Russian female outfit consisting of a sarafan dress and kokoshnik headpiece, proceeding to commission a forest photo shoot, trying on the role of a Russian folktale character. This role play provides an opportunity to simultaneously create an unusual self-portrait and revisit her national roots. As a result, we see the Artist in a fairytale context surrounded by clichéd imagery long since associated with Russian culture: an embroidered red sarafan and kokoshnik, a brown bear, a matryoshka doll, and deep woods through which one is able to see the recognisable outlines of the Moscow Kremlin. Another stereotyped motif is that of a wooden hut surrounded by a fence decorated with human skulls – an obvious allusion to the netherworld and Baba Yaga as its constant dweller.

Giving centre stage to the female protagonist, the Artist emphasises the humans’ leading role and narcissistic nature, although traditional pre-Christian beliefs never treated men as the pinnacle of creation, instructing them to live in harmony with nature while being an integral part of the Universe. Visually dividing the painting’s space in two, the Artist symbolically depicts Slavic cosmology with its multiple realms in a state of constant interaction, primarily those of men and of the otherworldly beings appearing in fairy and epic tales.

Using unnaturally vibrant colours to highlight some of the painted elements – like for instance the ferns – Ms. Fedorova established a visible borderline between the two worlds, long closed to the modern-day people by virtue of changed beliefs and new values and domains of focus, including the Internet, the outer space, metaphysical realms, social media, and virtual reality. Pictured next to the Russian beauty we see robots as attributes of the modern civilisation. In the present day, they act as the magical animals of yore that used to perform the tasks of helping and guiding the main fairytale characters, assisting them in their difficult exploits.

Behind the female protagonist we see a bear painted with subdued hues and thus also appearing ghostly and otherworldly. Within the archaic belief system, the bear was perceived as the most supernaturally powerful animal on par with the wolf. He was the principal figure and ruler of the transcendental. Believed to be the lord of the otherworldly, the bear was associated with abundance, fertility, and sexuality. The Slavs viewed this animal as a human being, albeit belonging to a different ‘tribe.’ In certain folktales, references can be traced to an ancient legend about a bear taking a girl lost in the woods as his wife (echoes of which survive, for instance, in Masha and the Bear children’s story), which perhaps can account for the Artist depicting herself as a Russian beauty in the woods with a bear standing guard behind her back to protect her. Modern-day men certainly possess other skills, but have lost their connection to the bear-like power manifested in the now-defunct tradition of initiation rites symbolising the acceptance of natural forces of the animal required for survival (like the hunting prowess needed to provide for the family). In its turn, the understanding of the woman’s role in contemporary world has also seen major transformations, as reflected in other works of Ms. Fedorova’s series, like for example the Swan Lady.

Richly decorated with golden patterns and widely accepted as the archetypal Russian toy (although in fact harking back to the ancient Japanese culture), the matryoshka doll acts here as a source of aggression and hostility: the metal braces that hold her in place suggest a sadistic disorder associated with intentionally inducing fear and pain in victims unused to accepting the subversive aspects of the traditional folk culture.

The artwork’s title speaks of its surreal, fantasy-like nature, pronouncing a desire to escape from the harsh realities into a fairytale world. An obvious reference to Salvador Dalí’s Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, it reiterates the great Surrealist’s approach to both the creative process and the way of dealing with various current events. As such, an attempt of the archaic characters to populate the domain of modernity with its new rules shaped by religious consciousness and globalisation is seen as surreal.

A highly allusive artwork from the Fairy Tales series, Swan Lady redefines the way women are perceived and portrayed in the 21st century, creating an impression contrasting to that invoked by its predecessor, The Swan Princess by Mikhail Vrubel. Contrary to Vrubel, the contemporary painter tends to gauge the present against the past, and not vice versa. Just like in the historical painting, the moment pictured by Ms. Marina Fedorova is that of a magical transformation in which the real meets the fictional, underscoring the dual nature of the bird maiden. Just like her great Russian forerunner, the contemporary Artist chose a particular colour palette corresponding to a specific time of day, the only marked difference being that the new Swan Princess is rendered against a wintery background indicating not just a season but a metaphor for the afterlife: within the traditional culture, winter was associated with severe weather conditions that not everyone was fit to survive. The North was the abode of ancestor souls where a living person was forbidden to tread (interestingly, the blessed souls of the ancient Egyptian kings were also believed to migrate North, in the direction of the Polaris).

Ms. Marina Fedorova paints the world anew, foregrounding the bleeding Swan Princess devoid of her soul. The Artist intentionally leaves the protagonist’s eyes blank: black and lifeless, they are overrun by horrifying darkness, as the Princess has become an empty soulless shell, retaining all but a trace of her identity which can be recognised by elements of her folk costume. The character is apparently frozen in the state of transformation – a kind of human-to-animal or human-to-bird metamorphosis that is reflected in various shape-shifter legends echoing the ancient worship of totemic animals and witchcraft requiring special rituals, invocations, or magic objects. In folklore, such metamorphoses seem to allude to initiation rites, indicating a ceremonial passage between different stages of human life; in this case, for instance, the girl gaining birdlike traits was transitioning to adulthood and subsequent wifedom as swans are believed to mate for life. It is after this magical transformation signifying ritual initiation that a young girl would be ready for and capable of transitioning to a new status of a married woman. The avian symbolism also establishes links between the female character and the mythical celestial birds producing light and warmth, redefining the ancient connection between nature and the woman’s unique calling as a life-giver. Addressing this archaic image, Ms. Fedorova speaks of the broken connection to the natural forces and capacities manifested in the character’s inability to transfigure. In the Artist’s version, the Swan Princess is stuck at the stage of initiation, no longer a bird, but not yet a powerful female ruler invested with responsibility for her own home and household represented by an entire kingdom sheltering all living beings. Also worth noting is the fact that the princess is bleeding at the abdomen – the source of all things according to ancient beliefs, the place of inception and growth of a new life, here visually signals a disruption of the timeless life continuation cycle.

The painting is replete with symbolism: the egg and treasure chest seen in its left part by the Swan Princess’s feet reference the mystery of death of Koshchei the Immortal, the archetypal male antagonist in Russian fairy tales, and for a good reason. These objects allude to the sacral rituals traditionally performed to symbolically ‘bury’ winter and usher in the spring renewal, with the figure of Koshchei representing the lord of the underworld, the spirit of winter and death ultimately conquered by a girl who has the power to transform into a bird (either a little duck or the Swan Princess, depending on the specific narrative) signifying her role as the allegory of spring and blossoming. These images are easily deciphered and interpreted by a viewer rooted in the Russian culture, while their sacral significance prompts one to reflect on the picture’s other encrypted meanings.

Toward the background of her Swan Lady painting, Ms. Marina Fedorova chose to add another quintessential feature instantly recognisable by the Russian viewers. It is the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl – the strikingly beautiful architectural monument dating back to the 12th century and built at the heart of medieval Russia, in the village of Bogolyubovo in the Vladimir Oblast. The church was commissioned by Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky to commemorate the death of his son Iziaslav who had sustained deadly injuries during a military expedition. Thus the beautiful airy structure that seems to float above the ground not only acts as a place of religious worship but doubles as a funerary and commemorative edifice. In this way the painting superimposes the symbols associated with pagan beliefs and still retained in folklore and fairy tales with the later Russian Orthodox tradition, and finally modern-day agenda epitomised by the plane about to soar above the church and thus bring the viewer back to the current reality.

The ‘fairytale’ series wraps up the imagery seen by the Artist as being specific to the Russian culture, belonging to the nation’s semiotic system and cultural code. All paintings containing references to Russian fairy tales (and subsequently the folktales of other traditions) are symbolically rich and highly characteristic of their creator’s vision. The Artist’s distinctive interpretations and associations coupled with the challenges of the present moment create new tales and stories rooted in the historic past.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert