Inga Tomilina MFA

"Since the theoretical part of my thesis was devoted to the traumatic past and its residual impact on human consciousness, as well as ways to overcome it, I will start with a fairy tale. In Russian fairy tales, a repetitive motive can be traced, demanding, in search of compensation for lost happiness, 'wear iron boots. "This is a symbol of the trials that the hero must go through. For example, Psyche was forced to wander for a long time and carry out the orders of Aphrodite in order to restore the destroyed world of her happiness. Because I wrote mostly about my country, I decided to be guided by the Russian pattern, which instructs the fairy-tale hero to wear iron boots. That is why I chose steel and iron as my main work, and glass is present here as a symbol of the plasticity and fragility of the emotional sphere, which, when frozen, can preserve the consequences of trauma for a long time. 

Mindset ... in countries of post-totalitarian regimes, where, it would seem, democracy has already been officially established, the emotional system of citizens is so exhausted by the diligently implanted syndrome of learned helplessness so that the population is in a state of permanent apathy, and due to constant subconscious self-censorship, civil society does not find the will to form into a single whole (he same way as the physical body cannot begin to function properly if it does not have accurate information from its nerve endings), and the more tightly people wrap their heavy emotions into silence, trying to protect their traumas from the attention of others, the more difficult it becomes for them to show joyful, light or kind of emotions in general, since the "emotional body" - the very ability to feel - is a single organism, and it cannot split and hide in parts. The way out art therapy offers in such conditions is to use the resources of the unconscious. Self-expression through creativity, like a periscope turned inside out, allows you to see what actually happens to the human spirit. 

Because I was writing so much about confusion and self-censorship, I became to work with entwined and tangled metall nots, where the mess represents equally: - our understanding of the past when real ends cannot be found or come together anymore. - numerous attempts to take a new route in the naive hope of getting a different result without changing the rules.

Through my pieces I wanted to talk about how subconsciousness works. There are many hooks and traps left in these works that can grab your hair. I left them on purpose. It symbolizes how strongly we depend on the mistakes of our consciousness. This is because I wanted to talk about the self-made limitations - how sometimes we most strongly bind ourselves by our position in life.

I also wanted to talk about the futility of trying to hide the past. Some people prefer not to know, or often really do not remember about harsh events of the past. That is why in some of my pieces the main part is located on the back. Thus, losses, or for example, a person's wrong way of thinking can be obvious from the outside, while it,s bearers sometimes are absolutely sincerely unaware. Our own consciousness has a proclivity to play hide and seek with us, that's why sometimes it is just unreasonable to rely on old understanding of things.

But there is always an opportunity to show an appreciation through study of consciousness as, how to say, "our personal voodoo doll" - because what we do to it happens then to us - and this is exactly what gives us a chance to put everything straight at the end of the day,if only we do care."