Maria Shanina
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REFLECTIONS

Textiles, 2021

“Reflections” is a group of paintings where the paint steered by the artist over the silk surface creates semi-transparent layers of dynamic shapes. Through this series of works I question “the new self” and “the new world”.

In my search for lightness and movement, I explore how I can make silk canvases become the opposite of stillness; how I can make them support the flow of the paint. I started deconstructing the silk surfaces, leaning on the weaving process in the opposite way.

Eventually, there was an installation of a painting on silk, when not the painting but only its impression was left imprinted into silk threads. This installation is a creative decomposition of itself that lets out the energy that’s been contained in the silk canvas through dynamic layered compositions of ink, casting shadows and creating new images on the walls around.

Hand-painted on silk and then carefully deconstructed, these works show familiar yet new realities. It's an installation of paintings on silk, when not the paintings but only the impression of them is left imprinted into silk threads. Deconstructed illusions that carry new identities, the new reality, the new life.

Reflected in the barely perceptible trembling of threads, an elusive motion of life, slowed down by the constant gravity. It’s a fleeting memory of the past, a promise of a better future, engaged with the moment.

Copyright © Maria Shanina, 2025, Canada