Black paintings of cheerful events
Cerberus Whines in Hell
2015, 90x90cm, acrylic on canvas
Sofia City Art Gallery Collection, Bulgaria
photo: Kalin Serapionov
Harpalyce Suddenly Got an Appetite Herself
2015, 2 parts painting (main part – 90×90 cm, second part – 30x30cm), acrylic on canvas
private collection
photo: Kalin Serapionov
Harpalyce was the daughter of king Clymenus who was overcome with passion for his daughter. In one version he raped her and she became pregnant. When the son was born she served him up as a meal to his father, who killed her over that. In an alternative version, she was instead transformed into a bird.
The painting depicts Harpalyce as contemporary woman, who just performed an act of consumption.
The Last Suffer
2017, 180x90cm, acrylic on canvas
Sofia City Art Gallery Collection, Bulgaria
photo: Kalin Serapionov
The painting uses the composition of the “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci, substituting the male figures with all women personages. At the center is the figure of the artist, who is vomiting as if being discussed and fed up with the whole situation. In the work I use the classical composition, which I consider to be a manifestation of the dominant culture and structure of the world, created and performed by men. By bringing different women figures, among them Lilith, myself, women of different colors, who are individual but also strangely similar to each other, I aim to invalidate and transform the dominant pattern of representation. The “ritual” is just a form, with no visible meaning and visibly absent enthusiasm. The predominant feeling is the one of total boredom and ignorance in front of the pathetic of the actually male narrative.
Covering Your Genitals with Leaves is not Enough
2019, acrylic, canvas,30 х30 сm
Sofia City Art Gallery Collection, Bulgaria
photo: Kalin Serapionov
Lilith and Eve Gamble over Adam
2020, acrylic on canvas, 120x120cm
private collection
photo: Kalin Serapionov
With the painting Lilith and Eve Gamble over Adam, Iskra Blagoeva continues to develop her series of works Black Paintings of Cheerful Events. All of them are related with the mythological narratives or popular (sacral) images which the artist transforms, always depicting a certain extreme states. Going back to the original biblical story of Adam and Eve, the artist chose to present a situation that is seemingly beyond the Fall. We see a time and a space which is not only far from Eden, but seems to fit in another dimension – a black hole in which the matter gains a different shape and character. The heavenly is cultivated, multiplied, depreciated and finally cold-bloodedly consumed. The opened fast food boxes, the flower in an undersized pot, the ash tray, the perfect donut that rather seems a piece of porcelainware – an artefact that has long lost its function to give pleasure, the wine and the bleached skull make up a still life beyond the natural. In this psychedelic world, the light bulb hanging like gallows replaces the sun; there is neither a way out, nor divine light. The consumed Heaven is the decor of the main act, in which the first human, the man – Adam – is gambled over at cards by the lookalikes Lilith and Eve, in whose form the artist portrays herself. The ultimate state of decadence is reached, which cannot “bear” fruit and “resurrect” the natural. In Iskra Blagoeva’s works, this state of overwhelming finale is a metaphor for the failure of the patriarchal order and the societal conditions and structures created by it, which comprise the foundation of the Western Christian culture. Through the extreme denial – the disgust, cruelty, coldness, and arrogant cynicism towards the sacral, the artist seeks a new image, a new beginning, which puts the woman in another role and gives her the strength to be capable not only of creation, but also of destruction like a vengeful Goddess.
Vladiya Mihaylova, curator