Legacies

Legacies represents a logical development of the previous theme. What kind of legacy shall we pass on to the next generations, and what will their future be like if we don’t consider all possible consequences for decades ahead when making decisions today?

One of the most widely discussed issues lately is childbirth and child rearing in the modern society, along with various aspects of children’s adjustment and development in the hi-tech environment. Areas of major concern are the effects of technology on the young minds and bodies, developing cognitive processes, and the experience of childhood itself, so vastly different now from what it used to be in the 20th century. The technical progress and life in the constant presence of technology is the new normal, shaping the now-natural human environment. In what ways will this invariable exposure to computer innovations and developments massively applied on a daily basis influence the life of the future generations, their ability to feel and experience reality, their social skills and empathy? Will our descendants still be capable of establishing meaningful relations and becoming conscientious members of the society? Will virtual values replace the real ones?

This series was conceived as the Artist’s tentative vision of scenes and situations which hopefully will not materialize any time soon, such as children having no knowledge of what pure spring water, luscious green grass or blue skies are like.

Ms. Fedorova’s paintings invite the viewer to engage in a dialogue. Feeling a certain nostalgia for the times now past, the Artist can’t overemphasise the fact that any generation was, is, and will be susceptible to a form of nostalgic yearning for the unknown.

After all, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Life in Space

Life in Spacelogically builds on the Artist’s observations of our life on Earth. She challenges us to imagine what life in the outer space would be like: how would we cope with the lack of sunlight and proper night and day patterns, what would it feel like to find ourselves deep within the vast and endless, but at the same time cold and empty cosmic expanse? Ms. Marina Fedorova ventures to suggest that people would be constantly accompanied by a sense of powerful nostalgia for their home planet, triggered even by the very thought of a potential chance to leave the Earth behind forever. Looking into the future, the Artist encourages us to hypothesise on how our life could evolve in the upcoming decades.

The Earth’s remoteness is expressed in these artworks by means of perspective: the heroines wistfully look at the tiny globe with cosmic nebulae swirling behind their backs. Here, on this new planet, both landscapes and architectural structures resemble the terrestrial ones, evoking a poignant sense of nostalgia.

One of the artworks in this series, Museum, later inspired the Space Art Odyssey virtual journey allowing the viewers to visit an imaginary art gallery in space. The painting shows an art space with panoramic windows located somewhere on the Moon surface: a character sporting bright red pumps obviously intends to visit the museum. The high but stable heels of these beautiful shoes rendered in broad brushstrokes, and the lithe legs whose owner is hidden from sight suggest a forward movement, reflecting the firmness and steadiness of intention.

The window motif appears again in At a Restaurant: here a glass separates the female protagonist from the endless cosmic space. The graceful girl in a red dress is apparently undaunted by the hugeness of the Universe. She has her back turned to us: we see neither her eyes nor any overt emotions, only a vague facial expression. She is holding a classic science fiction novel of the 20th century, Stanisław Lem’s Solaris. The heroine who remains a mystery to us is intently staring at some distant point, perhaps trying to distinguish the outlines of the erstwhile home planet and recall what life on Earth was like.

A painting conveying an extraterrestrial atmosphere through a contemporary, even slightly futuristic and concise interior pictured in it is Welcome to Café Earth. The picture shows a café somewhere far beyond the solar system which is freely accessible to any dwellers of other galaxies who wish to come and enjoy the singing of such immortal divas from planet Earth as Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo.

Another artwork with a slight tinge of nostalgia is called Suitcase. The lonely girl in a red cocktail dress wheeling a scarlet suitcase seems to be expecting something, perhaps ready to return to the planet of her ancestors. We see planet Earth looming in the horizon, its blue sphere looking friendly and welcoming. But is it really so? Is it actually possible to go back to Earth and inhabit it? It is rather more likely that the lonely figure is destined to be forever searching the outer space for the place where she belongs, the return to Earth remaining her impossible lifelong dream. This painting elaborates the concept of another work touched by the Artist’s trademark irony. Long before the present ‘Cosmic period’ and the creation of an entire series of artworks dedicated to space exploration, Ms. Marina Fedorova painted Lady Proton, a picture featuring a young girl being late for the launch of a rocket just like any one of us might be late for a plane or train. The spaceship takes off without her, leaving her to aimlessly wonder the Moon in hopes for a lucky hitchhike ride through the Universe.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Life in Space

Life in Spacelogically builds on the Artist’s observations of our life on Earth. She challenges us to imagine what life in the outer space would be like: how would we cope with the lack of sunlight and proper night and day patterns, what would it feel like to find ourselves deep within the vast and endless, but at the same time cold and empty cosmic expanse? Ms. Marina Fedorova ventures to suggest that people would be constantly accompanied by a sense of powerful nostalgia for their home planet, triggered even by the very thought of a potential chance to leave the Earth behind forever. Looking into the future, the Artist encourages us to hypothesise on how our life could evolve in the upcoming decades.

The Earth’s remoteness is expressed in these artworks by means of perspective: the heroines wistfully look at the tiny globe with cosmic nebulae swirling behind their backs. Here, on this new planet, both landscapes and architectural structures resemble the terrestrial ones, evoking a poignant sense of nostalgia.

One of the artworks in this series, Museum, later inspired the Space Art Odyssey virtual journey allowing the viewers to visit an imaginary art gallery in space. The painting shows an art space with panoramic windows located somewhere on the Moon surface: a character sporting bright red pumps obviously intends to visit the museum. The high but stable heels of these beautiful shoes rendered in broad brushstrokes, and the lithe legs whose owner is hidden from sight suggest a forward movement, reflecting the firmness and steadiness of intention.

The window motif appears again in At a Restaurant: here a glass separates the female protagonist from the endless cosmic space. The graceful girl in a red dress is apparently undaunted by the hugeness of the Universe. She has her back turned to us: we see neither her eyes nor any overt emotions, only a vague facial expression. She is holding a classic science fiction novel of the 20th century, Stanisław Lem’s Solaris. The heroine who remains a mystery to us is intently staring at some distant point, perhaps trying to distinguish the outlines of the erstwhile home planet and recall what life on Earth was like.

A painting conveying an extraterrestrial atmosphere through a contemporary, even slightly futuristic and concise interior pictured in it is Welcome to Café Earth. The picture shows a café somewhere far beyond the solar system which is freely accessible to any dwellers of other galaxies who wish to come and enjoy the singing of such immortal divas from planet Earth as Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo.

Another artwork with a slight tinge of nostalgia is called Suitcase. The lonely girl in a red cocktail dress wheeling a scarlet suitcase seems to be expecting something, perhaps ready to return to the planet of her ancestors. We see planet Earth looming in the horizon, its blue sphere looking friendly and welcoming. But is it really so? Is it actually possible to go back to Earth and inhabit it? It is rather more likely that the lonely figure is destined to be forever searching the outer space for the place where she belongs, the return to Earth remaining her impossible lifelong dream. This painting elaborates the concept of another work touched by the Artist’s trademark irony. Long before the present ‘Cosmic period’ and the creation of an entire series of artworks dedicated to space exploration, Ms. Marina Fedorova painted Lady Proton, a picture featuring a young girl being late for the launch of a rocket just like any one of us might be late for a plane or train. The spaceship takes off without her, leaving her to aimlessly wonder the Moon in hopes for a lucky hitchhike ride through the Universe.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Life on Earth

The Life on Earth series reflects the Artist’s ruminations on our everyday earthly life and cosmic reality. Ms. Fedorova explores its wide-ranging themes from a sociohistorical perspective, offering some profound insights.

The initial creative impulse for the COSMODREAMS project was sparked by the recent wave of international space exploration programmes. Witnessing the 21st-century race of the leading space-faring nations to the Moon and Mars with a view to their future colonisation and development, the Artist dedicated her first series to the celebration of patriotism. Next came the paintings that would later comprise the Life on Earth series. Here, the Artist turns her thoughts to the future, speculating just how the ever more present and rapidly proliferating technology might affect the life on our planet.

Ms. Marina Fedorova raises the issues of human lifestyle and survival of all life forms on Earth in response to the space race. She tries to imagine the future life of those who will go on living on their home planet and how their minds would be altered by the universally present competition for dominance in the outer space. The futuristic mood gradually emerging in the series was set by the multiple allusions to literary works and films that both inspired the Artist and directed her in her inner quest. Essentially metaphysical and philosophic, the series is at the same time dreamy and even somewhat naïve – a peculiar combination that would later be present throughout the entire project.

The choice of cool hues and light backgrounds symbolises sterility of space: the Artist seems to question the long-term benefits of technological progress. The paintings of this series seem to impart a feeling of detachment and loneliness, even a certain despondency looming over the human soul. Anxious to fulfil their deep-rooted inner needs, the characters of Ms. Fedorova’s artworks don VR headsets instead of rose-coloured glasses, escaping from the real world into a virtual reality (as in VR Headset).

The painting titled Time is centred around a large circle reminiscent of a spacecraft window. In addition to the title, the temporal subject matter becomes evident from the scarlet numerals displayed in the middle of the circle, turning it into a kind of a huge digital clock face. The female character stares at this porthole-cum-clock with a detached air. A mood of exhausted aloofness, sadness, even despair dominates the picture, reminding us that the passage of time is irreversible and beyond our control. By containing the digits within the perfect geometric shape of a circle, the Artist emphasises the cyclical nature of things. The eye does not immediately recognise the two red lines for what they are – red curtains decorating the interior. These vertical scarlet stripes fit perfectly into the painting’s composition, not only providing a colourful accent, but epitomising the desire to delimit time, to prevent it from flowing freely, to make it manageable and controllable.

The picture’s imagery and structure are evocative of a scene from Andrey Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris. This science fiction drama, based loosely on the eponymous novel by Stanisław Lem, deals with the very same issues that Ms. Marina Fedorova addresses. Among them are the ethical norms of human existence, the ultimate outcome of human pursuits, and the ability to live under stressful conditions. The novel also references psychoanalysis and the subconscious, examines various aspects of human trauma, probes into the subject of non-human intelligence and its ability to influence the space and time metrics. Highly resonant with the Artist are also the themes of reconnecting with one’s own self while spending the time in complete isolation.

The Conversation appeared in 2019, five years after the release of the British sci-fi thriller Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland. Painted against the pure white background that symbolises an utterly neutral, lifeless space are two figures staring at each other. This image was inspired by the first encounter between a man and a robot as shown in the film. This episode is revisited to address the major issue of humans interacting with artificial intelligence and the latter’s capability to not only process the incoming information but to truly sense its meaning and have genuine feelings. Today this contentious subject is trending across newsfeeds, thanks to the exponential development of generative AI and major improvements in the mathematical algorithms and software technologies based on the study of the human brain biology and the functioning of neural connections.

The female character in this picture was painted from life. Ms. Fedorova intentionally contracted a real model to pose for her on this instance. Squinting a little, the girl intently scrutinises the face of the android standing in front of her. The robot is slightly taller than his human counterpart, perhaps indicating the perceived supremacy and sophistication of the artificial intelligence. Such placement of figures can be interpreted as a reference to the Artist’s favourite books by the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, as well as the problems he voiced in his speech delivered at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention in 1972. The speech that later became known as The Android and the Human examined the psychology of humanity as seen through the lens of technology. Ms. Marina Fedorova depicts exactly this point of the first encounter between the robot and the human being, at which it is yet unclear who studies whom: is it the android scanning the girl, or is it the girl observing him closely in an attempt to discover an inner self, a soul, a feeling – anything to distinguish between the animate and the inanimate and artificial?

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Life on Earth

The Life on Earth series reflects the Artist’s ruminations on our everyday earthly life and cosmic reality. Ms. Fedorova explores its wide-ranging themes from a sociohistorical perspective, offering some profound insights.

The initial creative impulse for the COSMODREAMS project was sparked by the recent wave of international space exploration programmes. Witnessing the 21st-century race of the leading space-faring nations to the Moon and Mars with a view to their future colonisation and development, the Artist dedicated her first series to the celebration of patriotism. Next came the paintings that would later comprise the Life on Earth series. Here, the Artist turns her thoughts to the future, speculating just how the ever more present and rapidly proliferating technology might affect the life on our planet.

Ms. Marina Fedorova raises the issues of human lifestyle and survival of all life forms on Earth in response to the space race. She tries to imagine the future life of those who will go on living on their home planet and how their minds would be altered by the universally present competition for dominance in the outer space. The futuristic mood gradually emerging in the series was set by the multiple allusions to literary works and films that both inspired the Artist and directed her in her inner quest. Essentially metaphysical and philosophic, the series is at the same time dreamy and even somewhat naïve – a peculiar combination that would later be present throughout the entire project.

The choice of cool hues and light backgrounds symbolises sterility of space: the Artist seems to question the long-term benefits of technological progress. The paintings of this series seem to impart a feeling of detachment and loneliness, even a certain despondency looming over the human soul. Anxious to fulfil their deep-rooted inner needs, the characters of Ms. Fedorova’s artworks don VR headsets instead of rose-coloured glasses, escaping from the real world into a virtual reality (as in VR Headset).

The painting titled Time is centred around a large circle reminiscent of a spacecraft window. In addition to the title, the temporal subject matter becomes evident from the scarlet numerals displayed in the middle of the circle, turning it into a kind of a huge digital clock face. The female character stares at this porthole-cum-clock with a detached air. A mood of exhausted aloofness, sadness, even despair dominates the picture, reminding us that the passage of time is irreversible and beyond our control. By containing the digits within the perfect geometric shape of a circle, the Artist emphasises the cyclical nature of things. The eye does not immediately recognise the two red lines for what they are – red curtains decorating the interior. These vertical scarlet stripes fit perfectly into the painting’s composition, not only providing a colourful accent, but epitomising the desire to delimit time, to prevent it from flowing freely, to make it manageable and controllable.

The picture’s imagery and structure are evocative of a scene from Andrey Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris. This science fiction drama, based loosely on the eponymous novel by Stanisław Lem, deals with the very same issues that Ms. Marina Fedorova addresses. Among them are the ethical norms of human existence, the ultimate outcome of human pursuits, and the ability to live under stressful conditions. The novel also references psychoanalysis and the subconscious, examines various aspects of human trauma, probes into the subject of non-human intelligence and its ability to influence the space and time metrics. Highly resonant with the Artist are also the themes of reconnecting with one’s own self while spending the time in complete isolation.

The Conversation appeared in 2019, five years after the release of the British sci-fi thriller Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland. Painted against the pure white background that symbolises an utterly neutral, lifeless space are two figures staring at each other. This image was inspired by the first encounter between a man and a robot as shown in the film. This episode is revisited to address the major issue of humans interacting with artificial intelligence and the latter’s capability to not only process the incoming information but to truly sense its meaning and have genuine feelings. Today this contentious subject is trending across newsfeeds, thanks to the exponential development of generative AI and major improvements in the mathematical algorithms and software technologies based on the study of the human brain biology and the functioning of neural connections.

The female character in this picture was painted from life. Ms. Fedorova intentionally contracted a real model to pose for her on this instance. Squinting a little, the girl intently scrutinises the face of the android standing in front of her. The robot is slightly taller than his human counterpart, perhaps indicating the perceived supremacy and sophistication of the artificial intelligence. Such placement of figures can be interpreted as a reference to the Artist’s favourite books by the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, as well as the problems he voiced in his speech delivered at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention in 1972. The speech that later became known as The Android and the Human examined the psychology of humanity as seen through the lens of technology. Ms. Marina Fedorova depicts exactly this point of the first encounter between the robot and the human being, at which it is yet unclear who studies whom: is it the android scanning the girl, or is it the girl observing him closely in an attempt to discover an inner self, a soul, a feeling – anything to distinguish between the animate and the inanimate and artificial?

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Life on Earth

The Life on Earth series reflects the Artist’s ruminations on our everyday earthly life and cosmic reality. Ms. Fedorova explores its wide-ranging themes from a sociohistorical perspective, offering some profound insights.

The initial creative impulse for the COSMODREAMS project was sparked by the recent wave of international space exploration programmes. Witnessing the 21st-century race of the leading space-faring nations to the Moon and Mars with a view to their future colonisation and development, the Artist dedicated her first series to the celebration of patriotism. Next came the paintings that would later comprise the Life on Earth series. Here, the Artist turns her thoughts to the future, speculating just how the ever more present and rapidly proliferating technology might affect the life on our planet.

Ms. Marina Fedorova raises the issues of human lifestyle and survival of all life forms on Earth in response to the space race. She tries to imagine the future life of those who will go on living on their home planet and how their minds would be altered by the universally present competition for dominance in the outer space. The futuristic mood gradually emerging in the series was set by the multiple allusions to literary works and films that both inspired the Artist and directed her in her inner quest. Essentially metaphysical and philosophic, the series is at the same time dreamy and even somewhat naïve – a peculiar combination that would later be present throughout the entire project.

The choice of cool hues and light backgrounds symbolises sterility of space: the Artist seems to question the long-term benefits of technological progress. The paintings of this series seem to impart a feeling of detachment and loneliness, even a certain despondency looming over the human soul. Anxious to fulfil their deep-rooted inner needs, the characters of Ms. Fedorova’s artworks don VR headsets instead of rose-coloured glasses, escaping from the real world into a virtual reality (as in VR Headset).

The painting titled Time is centred around a large circle reminiscent of a spacecraft window. In addition to the title, the temporal subject matter becomes evident from the scarlet numerals displayed in the middle of the circle, turning it into a kind of a huge digital clock face. The female character stares at this porthole-cum-clock with a detached air. A mood of exhausted aloofness, sadness, even despair dominates the picture, reminding us that the passage of time is irreversible and beyond our control. By containing the digits within the perfect geometric shape of a circle, the Artist emphasises the cyclical nature of things. The eye does not immediately recognise the two red lines for what they are – red curtains decorating the interior. These vertical scarlet stripes fit perfectly into the painting’s composition, not only providing a colourful accent, but epitomising the desire to delimit time, to prevent it from flowing freely, to make it manageable and controllable.

The picture’s imagery and structure are evocative of a scene from Andrey Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris. This science fiction drama, based loosely on the eponymous novel by Stanisław Lem, deals with the very same issues that Ms. Marina Fedorova addresses. Among them are the ethical norms of human existence, the ultimate outcome of human pursuits, and the ability to live under stressful conditions. The novel also references psychoanalysis and the subconscious, examines various aspects of human trauma, probes into the subject of non-human intelligence and its ability to influence the space and time metrics. Highly resonant with the Artist are also the themes of reconnecting with one’s own self while spending the time in complete isolation.

The Conversation appeared in 2019, five years after the release of the British sci-fi thriller Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland. Painted against the pure white background that symbolises an utterly neutral, lifeless space are two figures staring at each other. This image was inspired by the first encounter between a man and a robot as shown in the film. This episode is revisited to address the major issue of humans interacting with artificial intelligence and the latter’s capability to not only process the incoming information but to truly sense its meaning and have genuine feelings. Today this contentious subject is trending across newsfeeds, thanks to the exponential development of generative AI and major improvements in the mathematical algorithms and software technologies based on the study of the human brain biology and the functioning of neural connections.

The female character in this picture was painted from life. Ms. Fedorova intentionally contracted a real model to pose for her on this instance. Squinting a little, the girl intently scrutinises the face of the android standing in front of her. The robot is slightly taller than his human counterpart, perhaps indicating the perceived supremacy and sophistication of the artificial intelligence. Such placement of figures can be interpreted as a reference to the Artist’s favourite books by the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, as well as the problems he voiced in his speech delivered at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention in 1972. The speech that later became known as The Android and the Human examined the psychology of humanity as seen through the lens of technology. Ms. Marina Fedorova depicts exactly this point of the first encounter between the robot and the human being, at which it is yet unclear who studies whom: is it the android scanning the girl, or is it the girl observing him closely in an attempt to discover an inner self, a soul, a feeling – anything to distinguish between the animate and the inanimate and artificial?

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Red Roots

The swan signifies a musician as well as music itself. Because of its colour, it is a sign that secrets will be revealed. If sick men dream of a swan, it indicates recovery. If it sings, however, it means death. For the swan does not utter a sound until the hour of its death.

Artemidorus Daldianus. The Interpretation of Dreams. II, 20

One of the most emotional series of paintings created by Ms. Marina Fedorova bears the title Swan Song, or, My Red Roots.

The series is not so much a reaction to any ongoing events, but rather a product of an intense inner fervour: with her paintings and allegoric imagery Marina conveys her emotions, attitude, and pain.

This red and white series is built around the Artist’s favourite palette with rather sharp contrasts. Its colours, however, are far removed from the bright scarlet of the Parallel series or the distinctive white of the Kresty paintings. These pictures feature a different shade of red verging on burgundy – thick as blood dripping from a vein. White hues grow saturated and border on grey, as if to reflect the denseness of air which is no longer crisp or thin as in the mountains. The snow in Winter Lake symbolises the events of the present day, the media space which has permeated everything and allows no easy escape, causing an acute sense of helplessness and loss of self amid the inhuman ‘scarlet-red’ environment.

The Birch Tree Alley watercolour whose protagonist is attempting to shake off her heavy coat like a bondage that prevents her from escaping the chilling snow domain is in fact a study for a nascent series of paintings conceived as a response to the grim reality. The girl wants to shake off the garment that kept her warm in the winter cold, ready to discard the cosiness of fir that proves to be useless when it comes to survival.

Later on, Marina would paint a series of large-scale canvases whose recurring character is a dark-haired girl with clearly Slavic features. We see her in one picture after another, as if her creator were telling the story of one and the same person.

Black Water, By the Lake, Winter Lake, and Swan Song all seem to comprise the Artist’s allegoric statement. Over the time span captured by these four paintings, the girl fails to escape her snowbound surroundings. Obstacles keep appearing along her way, be it the deep snow that sucks her in or the dark waters that block her progress. The black and uninviting river, gloomy and dangerous, is associated with the otherworld, a passage into another reality, a harbinger of misfortunes, cruel reality and death that the main character is facing. In this sense, the Swan Song painting is central to the series. Here, the Artist predicts the fate of her protagonist who eventually transforms into a beautiful swan. This artwork allows a glimpse into the hidden truth and the inner world of the female character who is given huge white blood-spattered swan wings that symbolise life, rebirth, purity, and chastity, all united in one final song before the tragic end.

One of the most upsetting pictures, Red Field, shows a ploughed field overflowing with blood, as if it were the setting for some pagan ritual involving human sacrifices. A soil fertilised with human blood is the price of the future harvest.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Arabian Nights

The Artist embarked on creating a series of paintings that would later make up a separate thematic cluster within the COSMODREAMS project titled Arabian Nights after her trip to the Arabic countries.

Enchanted by the oriental culture, Ms. Marina Fedorova, as any true artist, resorts to the medium of painting to share her impressions. Hence she has integrated the previously experienced landscapes into the COSMODREAMS universe, merging her imaginary world with real cultural heritage sites of the Middle East. On this particular instance, the Artist used the theme of space conquest as a kind of bridge linking various civilisations – a domain of human endeavours providing limitless opportunities for scientific progress and other human achievements irrespective of cultural codes, faith or nationality. This philosophy is consistent with the doctrines voiced by the extraordinary Russian and Soviet self-taught scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935) who believed that space exploration is bound to unite mankind into a single nation that would inhabit the endless expanse of the Universe while constantly growing in numbers.

One of the pictures in this cluster was inspired by the annual Traditional Dhow Boat Festival in Qatar. For centuries, wooden dhow boats have been navigating the Arabian Sea as the principal mode of transportation, bringing fresh water, fruit, and other commodities to local inhabitants. The painting illustrates the Artist’s fantasy about the preservation of the national and cultural heritage and the possible transformations of local cultural artefacts in the age of rapidly developing space technologies. The artwork bears a distinct imprint of Ms. Fedorova’s signature painting style, frequently seen in her urban landscapes. It gives us a chance to infer which city left a mark in the Artist’s heart and memory, and which people and events she now associates it with.

Characteristically, such paintings as There (2014) from the Reflections project (similar in terms of composition and even colour scheme), as well as NY (2014, Reflections), Night in the City (2015, Reflections), and other cityscapes rendered by the Artist clearly demonstrate Ms. Fedorova’s tendency to admire the beauty of human creations with a childlike candidness.

The Martian Night painting is a reference to the tales of One Thousand and One Nights with their enchanting plot twists, colourful characters, and magic. The Artist changes the setting of one of these spellbinding stories which now takes place in the extraterrestrial realms, on the red planet of Mars. The ancient folk tale acquires new shape: we see a future Aladdin who has nevertheless retained his cultural DNA and national identity with its characteristic mastery of magical objects and artefacts. As for the gymnast girl sculpture, this is one of the recurring images across the Artist’s oeuvre, allowing her to link together several distinct artworks within the COSMODREAMS project, including the Space Art Odyssey video and the 3D-printed sculpture. In addition, an AR scenario created for the picture effortlessly blends the classical painting elements of oil, canvas, and academic composition with advanced digital art medium.

The painting features various shades of reddish orange and blue – quite an unusual colour combination for the Artist. Orange is a multifaceted colour with rich symbolic meanings in different cultures. It is very much present in Asian religions, implying spiritual perfection and the ultimate state of enlightenment.

The Artist seems to allude to the wisdom and knowledge passed down with epic tales and legends which are never affected by time. In the modern world, traditional folk tales are as relevant as before and can easily adjust to current trends and circumstances.

White Mosque was inspired by one of the world’s largest mosques. The grand, impeccably white structure looks pure and weightless, as if floating above the ground. Ms. Marina Fedorova visualizes this priceless piece of architectural heritage intact after many centuries and perhaps even millennia, looking into the future with a firm belief that important cultural objects will retain their authenticity despite globalisation and the trailblazing discoveries in space.

Yet another artwork featuring a colour palette uncharacteristic of the Artist is called Al-‘Ula. Its title refers to the architectural landmark designated as the UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This until recently closed country is a true natural and cultural gem. The painting may be seen as Ms. Marina Fedorova’s evocative tribute to one of the majestic Nabatean tombs of Al-‘Ula. The inclusion of a spaceship into the picture connects it to the project’s recurring theme of space exploration. For this painting, too, the Artist came up with an alternative story realised as an AR scenario activated through the COSMODREAMS AR app. Digital art is employed here as an auxiliary tool allowing one to step beyond the confines of a two-dimensional canvas and imagine what could happen in this beautiful unspoilt oasis.

The subject and composition of the final work in this cluster is somewhat reminiscent of an older painting dating from 2011, At Home. In 222 Dubai, created in 2023, Ms. Fedorova also depicts a female figure standing with her back turned to the viewer and visually resembling the Artist herself. The female protagonist is staring out of a large panoramic window as the entire history of a country unfolds outside, witnessing the most sophisticated technologies being boldly introduced while the national identity is carefully preserved. Perhaps in the near future no one would be surprised by the sight of disk-shaped aircrafts like the one visible in the top right corner. By painting this minor detail against the clear sky, the Artist seems to hint at the idea of a bright and serene future professed by her predecessors, thinkers and scholars of the Russian cosmism movement, who envisioned the advancement of space technologies. The picture tangibly differs in mood from At Home; this difference is further reinforced by the fact that the protagonist is holding on to a handle of a suitcase painted in Ms. Fedorova’s favourite colours. This ostensibly minor detail immediately captures the viewer’s attention: standing in stark contrast to the blue and grey shades of the rest of the canvas, it clearly becomes its focal point. The travel accessory acts as the epitome of something important that each of us carries through life, be it experience, knowledge, impressions, pain, grievances, disappointments, dreams or hopes.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Deep Space

Up until recently, this was the closing series of artworks created for COSMODREAMS. However, year 2022 witnessed the start of a substantial expansion of the art project’s geographical boundaries and a steadily widening international presence. Ms. Marina Fedorova’s growing interest in the cultures she had not experienced before was partially due to the global events that had been unfolding since the beginning of the pandemic. Artists were always believed to constitute a special stratum of professionals capable of creatively tapping into their present reality and providing visual imagery expressing the dramatic events of their time. Having explored the traditional heritage of some of the world’s leading cultures, the Artist shares her impressions and interpretations of it. In essence, the Deep Space cluster facilitated the emergence of the Chinese Fairy Tales and Arabian Night series presented for the first time in this updated edition.

The vivid imagery and abstract backgrounds of these paintings capture the viewer’s imagination. The Artist seemingly hypnotises her audience, immersing them in a state of meditative contemplation: the endless metaphysical spaces, the otherworldly landscapes, and the enveloping nebulae evoke a sensation of zero gravity, of weightless soaring in space. To achieve this visual depth, the Artist uses a rich palette dominated by various shades of blue, black, violet, and red.

With this series, the Artist shares her impression of lightness and freedom of cosmic spaces. Gone are the visions of environmental disaster or misguided technological progress to warn us, there are no more cautionary tales to be told. Ms. Fedorova does not seem to care why her heroines remain unharmed by cosmic radiation, how they manage to survive in the extraterrestrial environment, or how they ended up in the open space in the first place. What really matters in each case is the feminine grace, delicacy, purity and vulnerability, easily turning into a force that swiftly adapts women to any environment.

Female images symbolize integrity, the ideal world order, and true harmony. For Ms. Marina Fedorova, space is a beautiful and harmonious place. Each of her paintings is a celebration of beauty and picturesqueness, a sheer joy experienced by the Artist in the creation of each canvas.

The deep and endless space is open for meaningful and harmonious encounters.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert

Deep Space

Up until recently, this was the closing series of artworks created for COSMODREAMS. However, year 2022 witnessed the start of a substantial expansion of the art project’s geographical boundaries and a steadily widening international presence. Ms. Marina Fedorova’s growing interest in the cultures she had not experienced before was partially due to the global events that had been unfolding since the beginning of the pandemic. Artists were always believed to constitute a special stratum of professionals capable of creatively tapping into their present reality and providing visual imagery expressing the dramatic events of their time. Having explored the traditional heritage of some of the world’s leading cultures, the Artist shares her impressions and interpretations of it. In essence, the Deep Space cluster facilitated the emergence of the Chinese Fairy Tales and Arabian Night series presented for the first time in this updated edition.

The vivid imagery and abstract backgrounds of these paintings capture the viewer’s imagination. The Artist seemingly hypnotises her audience, immersing them in a state of meditative contemplation: the endless metaphysical spaces, the otherworldly landscapes, and the enveloping nebulae evoke a sensation of zero gravity, of weightless soaring in space. To achieve this visual depth, the Artist uses a rich palette dominated by various shades of blue, black, violet, and red.

With this series, the Artist shares her impression of lightness and freedom of cosmic spaces. Gone are the visions of environmental disaster or misguided technological progress to warn us, there are no more cautionary tales to be told. Ms. Fedorova does not seem to care why her heroines remain unharmed by cosmic radiation, how they manage to survive in the extraterrestrial environment, or how they ended up in the open space in the first place. What really matters in each case is the feminine grace, delicacy, purity and vulnerability, easily turning into a force that swiftly adapts women to any environment.

Female images symbolize integrity, the ideal world order, and true harmony. For Ms. Marina Fedorova, space is a beautiful and harmonious place. Each of her paintings is a celebration of beauty and picturesqueness, a sheer joy experienced by the Artist in the creation of each canvas.

The deep and endless space is open for meaningful and harmonious encounters.

Aleksandra Danilovskikh
Art Historian, Art Expert