Elena Zaiats

Artist's statement

I work with the female archetype at the point of its maximum tension — at the site of conflict between contemporary subjectivity and historical objectification. Acquired freedom produces an illusion of choice, and this illusion generates a constant state of misalignment with ideal expectations.

Ancient layers (religious constructs, cultural scripts, historical roles) do not belong to the past. They continue to operate, embedding themselves into the present as its densest and most conflict-laden layer.

The archetype accumulates, forming as a stratigraphy — a structure in which each older layer is preserved and continues to influence the new.

My practice develops at the intersection of this internal tension and the experience of forced emigration. Movement across different cultures over several years exposes the repetition of pressure placed on women: differences in context do not eliminate it, but rather transform the forms of control and expectation.

Chalk, the material I work with, binds these layers together. It is a residue of the living, a trace of cultural heritage, a substance in the process of disintegration that reflects contemporaneity, and at the same time a tactile, corporeal material.

In my work, I assert the figure of a woman capable of existing within conflict, sustaining a multiplicity of contradictions without disintegration, and instead forming a new reality.

My task is to define the point of maximum tension in the formation of the female archetype of the early 21st century as a state of transition — one that has no historical analogues and determines the vector of civilization's future.