Artist statement
The change of context from the oppressive Russian environment to the European democracy affected the development of the key themes of my practice: connection, interaction, and identity. I explore social constructs, feelings of alienation within society and the fear of inadequacy.
I believe that beneath the superficial social layer, we humans cannot ignore or discard the primary, raw parts of our biological nature. This is why I tend to animate objects; metamorphosis and juxtaposition are constantly reflected in my practice. I choose a raw and intentionally primitive, child-like style to portray interspecies fusion. Humor is always present in my work, allowing me to blend the awkward beauty and absurdity of life.
While I draw inspiration from the diverse world of fauna, I am equally interested in the creation of new shapes—attracted to random traces of light, splashes of liquid, or stains. However, I always return to the features of the human face. Although I cannot imagine the world without color, I maintain a very selective and responsible attitude toward its use.
Having spent several years focusing on photography and collage, I am currently working with graphics, painting, and mixed-media sculpture. In painting, I feel more at liberty to use a chromatic palette. In my latest graphic series, Shadows & Sweethearts, I use achromatic colors to see shapes more clearly, focusing on gesture and silhouette to depict animal-human hybrids coexisting. The characters are mixed with ghosts as a metaphor for the memories and traumas we carry with us; sometimes, they are merely shadows themselves. My works do not provide clear answers; instead, I intend to create a fragile, tense emotional space for the viewer to contemplate and relate.
Bio
Lita Poliakova is a Germany-based visual artist whose practice moves fluidly between painting, creating objects, and mixed media pieces. Born and in the Soviet Union and raised through the transition times to Russia, from an early age she encountered dictatorship, discrimination, the power of propaganda and fake freedom.
That harsh environment, poverty, and rigid social structure made her interested in the concepts and notions of spontaneity, the unexpected, and the unexplainable. Instead of pursuing occupations prescribed and valued by social norms, such as a factory worker or an engineer, she leaned toward art.
There, she valued the random and accidental, where an unknown, undefined, and fluid form is part of both the process and the result. She started her path in art with photojournalism and a degree in graphic design. Later, through further studies in design theory and contemporary art, she moved from documenting and arranging towards analysing and transforming approaches. For many years, she worked in collage techniques, deconstructing images, fragmenting, and recycling paper materials. Through precise physical assembly, these disparate fragments were resurrected into bizarre hybrid creatures and graphic visual poetry. Her compositions serve as an exploration of physical and psychological transfiguration.
During her time at Aalto University in Finland, she dove into philosophy, and interspecies dialogue, which broadened her perspective and later reflected in her work with self-prepared natural inks. Poliakova deliberately leans into themes of vulnerability, aging, lostness, and bodily imperfection. Her painting work started with inner psychological portraits and disfigured faces, evolving over time into chimera creatures.
Moving to Europe after graduation and being a part of international exhibitions gave her a position of not being fully an insider nor the outsider. Being an immigrant and finding her place in a different culture brought up the topics of identity, cultural codes and coexistence within society. In her graphic works, she questions who we are, how we coexist, what we present to the world, and how our identities molt over time. The resulting pieces balance grotesque organic textures, emotional landscapes, and visual mythologies.
Currently based in Dresden Lita dedicates her time to creation of graphic works and expanding her expression to ceramics. She continues to present the results of her practice at exhibitions and art fairs.