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