[Im]perfections (2022)
‘I have practiced yoga for many years and even became Ashtanga yoga tutor. Since I have no time for daily training my body lost the high level of strength and flexibility that I have reached before. This feeling of imperfection pushed me towards investigation into my own body transformation. Shapes of wearable sculptures reflect the gap between my real physical potential at the moment and correct performance of yoga poses.
Materials: yoga mat, kinesis tape, foam, plaster bandages
Photo: Julia Zakharova
MUA: Olga Bunina
In 2022 iteration of this project, I became interested in this shift in perception between a suspended sculpture, as something that has already physically separated, but required and requires a struggle (and even visually resembles a punching bag), and photographs where these objects are attached to my body, where the lines of my and someone else's body can be compared.
This time, I wanted to make the photographs bigger and glossier, something like magazine posters, challenging firstly the role of glossy magazines in the obsessive broadcast of unattainable images, and secondly, a wall with posters is something about the creation of an ideal body image, a model that is compared and imitated. The composition of three photographs is a reminiscent of ‘faster, higher, stronger’, a motto often fueling athletes toward victory but equally triggering unhealthy behaviors like anorexia nervosa.
I used a yoga mat as a material for sculptures, its bright color reflects on the component of pop culture, the otherness of material from which it is made (a very cheap ones are quite toxic) in contrast to originally natural, spiritual, ecologically friendly practice. Another material that i used is kinesio tape which is about healing traumas. Through my wearable sculptures and photographs, I sought not just to portray my personal journey but to spark a larger conversation about the complexities of self-perception, societal expectations, and the multifaceted nature of body transformation.
This time, I wanted to make the photographs bigger and glossier, something like magazine posters, challenging firstly the role of glossy magazines in the obsessive broadcast of unattainable images, and secondly, a wall with posters is something about the creation of an ideal body image, a model that is compared and imitated. The composition of three photographs is a reminiscent of ‘faster, higher, stronger’, a motto often fueling athletes toward victory but equally triggering unhealthy behaviors like anorexia nervosa.
I used a yoga mat as a material for sculptures, its bright color reflects on the component of pop culture, the otherness of material from which it is made (a very cheap ones are quite toxic) in contrast to originally natural, spiritual, ecologically friendly practice. Another material that i used is kinesio tape which is about healing traumas. Through my wearable sculptures and photographs, I sought not just to portray my personal journey but to spark a larger conversation about the complexities of self-perception, societal expectations, and the multifaceted nature of body transformation.
