Weekly Artist Post

Mariya Kozhanova 

In all three images, Kozhanova has depicted women wearing colorful and extravagant wigs. The way they are framed almost makes them look like mystical characters. This can be seen in the first image, where it is so perfectly taken to look like a typical scene from sailor moon or kingdom hearts. I believe Kozhanova may have Kozhanova even asked the girl in the blue on the left to raise her arm in order to create a balance working with the staff in the hand of the girl on the right. The naked female in the second image also almost looks like she is from a magical world, but this only possible because she was probably instructed by Kozhanova to hold open the door while immersed in her wig to create a contrast between the darker-right and lighter-left side. In the third image we can see this as the woman is framed so well by elements of different types and textures and by their reflections.

I said almost because although there are very surreal aspects to each image, there are always things tying them back to reality. In the first image, everything about the image is magical, even the rusted rooftop could fool me, but for some reason it seems like the Kozhanova didn't edit the photo much at all, leaving it sort of bleak for such a dramatic frame. If you were to put your hand over the whole right half of the second image, the woman looks like a spectacularly naked princess or fairy. If you were to do the on the left half, she would look like an ordinary naked girl wearing a wig in her living room. The thing that ties the third image back to earth is the earth itself. By that i mean that the nature makes it seem like its a very great image of an ordinary world.

I believe Kozhanova is exploring the struggle that these people face as they to try and bring excitement to a boring or typical world that they dont understand or dont want to understand. This can be seen clearest in the second image, as the girl is naked both physically and ideologically and either sides of the room represent her separate choices for identifying herself.