Polina Zaslavskaya is an artist, curator, and educator based in St Petersburg. She is a co-founder of the queer-feminist affinity art group Unwanted Organisation and she is a co-editor of the zine Naglaya Rvanina (“Bold and Ragged”). In her practice, she often makes statements about queer and women’s rights in Russia and in the world, while also exploring such issues as alienation and freedom.
Recommended by Masha Godovannaya
From the Animal series. Flesh, 2015. This watercolour series is a study of the everyday routine; here, the kitchen becomes a space for experimentation and a battleground of art and life
From the Animal series. Tongue, 2017. Zaslavskaya is interested in exploring the many senses, images, and relationships that this space is a home for
Utensils. 365 series, 2013-2016. 0+ space, St Petersburg. Photo: Alexey Kruchkovsky. Here, Zaslavskaya adds another dimension to the subject and shows the lingering presence of the Soviet in the contemporary Russian homes
Utensils. 365 series, 2013-2016. 0+ space, St Petersburg. Photo: Alexey Kruchkovsky. Through depicting the objects we use every day, Zaslavskaya manages to make a strong personal and political statement
Utensils. 365 series, 2013-2016. 0+ space, St Petersburg. Photo: Alexey Kruchkovsky
This Is Mine, That Is Yours. Painting of the Year exhibition, St Petersburg, 2010. The text featured in the painting come from a famous slogan, “Don’t sell yourself for the flowers—tomorrow you’ll be at the stove again”
Ragged Block action performance. St Petersburg, 2017. Queer feminist art group Unwanted Organisation taking part in the May Day Parade along with a sex workers rights group Silver Rose
From the Atlas of Being project. Experiment # 1. Installation at the Landscape Poetry festival Pushkin Laboratories, Pushkin, 2016. Atlas of Being is an attempt to analyse the transformation between two states, animal and human
Physical Evidence series, 2017. DK Rose, St Petersburg, 2018. Based on Aleksandr Kondakov’s research project “Hate Crimes against LGBTQ+ Populations in Russia.” The objects in the watercolours were participants, accomplices, or witnesses of these crimes
Chronicles of Refugee, 2018. With Masha Godovannaya. Rituals of Relatedness exhibition, Centre for Arts and Music, St Petersburg, 2019. This project was inspired by the eponymous book by Evgeny Shtorn, a Russian-Kazakh LGBTQ+ activist living in Ireland
Chronicles of Refugee, 2018. With Masha Godovannaya. Rituals of Relatedness exhibition, Centre for Arts and Music, St Petersburg, 2019. This series is a study of exile through the lens of world art history
Dear Sylvia, 2020
