In the two remarkable series presented here, artist Maria Zaikina demonstrates a wide range of both skill and curiosity. Her investigations into various visual experiences show an enthusiasm and ability to bring viewers into her wold.
In the photographic series, 'You are my Sunshine', Zaikina asks the subject of the portrait to gaze at the sun while remembering someone whom they have lost. The wide variety of expressions resulting from this exercise are nuanced, complicated, and reflect a difficult combination of emotions. With various solid walls behind them, the postures and gestures of these individuals emphasize their predicament.
Zaikina keeps the main element - a small house almost centered in a changing landscape - still and solid in each of the 'Landschaft mit Haus' (Landscape with House) works. By modifying the shapes and colors of the various planes of terrain and building, the artist transforms the landscape from one place to another, one mood to anther, one season to the next. By virtue of repetition the viewer can experience each mood and, importantly, what happens during the transition from one to the next.
In these very different yet parallel portfolios, Zaikina examines the subjects with an acute intensity. In turn, the viewer becomes observer of the moods and expressions of both people and landscape. Repetition serves to enhance the experience, each piece adding to the one before. Coming back to them, repeating the experience, allows us to delve into the image, to be moved by a simple landscape and to empathize with someone who is remembering, painfully, something joyful.
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