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