Perova Natalya Alexandrovna (b.1995), is a multimedia artist, who currently lives and works in Moscow. She creates paintings, graphics, and objects, while studying the problem of objectification, the anthropology of sex, gender and Freudianism, but has recently turned to the problems of the Anthropocene and posthumanism.
Perova is concerned with the hybridity of modern techno-communication systems and humans, with the opposition that develops between advanced communications and humanism.
She graduated from the Institute of Arts and Culture in Belgorod (2011-2015). After graduating from the specialty, she became one of the founders of the creative educational platform “K34”, where medium-sized various media worked. (2019-2021). Co-founder of the self-organized exhibition space “IP Vinogradov”, Moscow.
Hi Perova! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you! First question that I always ask. How does a regular day look like for you?
Perova: Likewise, Ruben! Usually, no matter how strange it may seem, from waking up! Now I have a fairly large project workload, so my whole day is tied up around working moments and working in the workshop.
Fortunately, there is also a place in this schedule for visiting exhibitions/vernissages and meetings with friends.
I’m curious. Growing up, what kind of kid were you? What did you enjoy doing, and how did you spend your time?
Perova: I was a hyperactive, loud kid. I had practically no free time, I went straight to music and art schools, and also to judo, the latter skill was never useful to me.
From a fairly early age, I was faced with a destructive experience and in order to somehow protect myself from an aggressive external environment, my psyche began to search for a safe place and immerse itself in its own subjective worlds. I think this is where the algorithm of the need to represent and protect my own vision originated.
When did you start taking becoming an artist serious?
Perova: I have never had a question of choosing this profession. It has always been an internal necessity. My first education ‘teacher of academic drawing and painting’ already seems like a pretty serious decision. Later, I graduated from the Baza Institute of Contemporary Art Theory in 2021. Actually, here I am aware of when I entered a more professional scene and environment and became aware of myself in this profession.
What’s your inspiration behind the various surreal scenes and motifs in your work? And how do you come up with them?
Perova: In my works, I explore the topic of digital subcultures. Socialization in the modern era is influenced by a large number of information channels, real communication is being replaced by digital communication. I am interested in associations that are being transformed into a digital subculture format.
One of these associations is cyber feminism. Donna Haraway wrote the politicized cyber femme punk utopia “Cyborg Manifesto” – in this work she reinvented and described the figure of a cyborg who violates the boundaries of stable subjectivity through a mixture of animal, human and technology.
With that in mind. Can you walk me through your creative process, from beginning to end result?
Perova: It depends on the medium in which I will produce the work, but it always happens with a preliminary study of the topic, the context of the area and the search for material. For painting, I use stock photos and symbols, which, as a result, I pre-collage in digital programs, and only then transfer to the canvas. When working with videos, I use performative practices and bodywork, so it’s always internal settings and an additional search for locations/costume.
Can you tell me about why you’re concerned with the hybridity of modern techno-communication systems and humans, with the opposition that develops between advanced communications and humanism?
Perova: The life of a modern person is closely connected with information technologies and new media. Communication between man and technology encourages culture to develop an appropriate understanding of human subjectivity and the boundaries of the body. The body in the capitalist system must bring itself to work, nourish itself with food, be no worse than other bodies, look good, reproduce other bodies, wear out, desire.
The reflexes of these instincts are very similar to the operation of the mechanism of the ‘machine’ as such.
I am fascinated and at the same time frightened by the idea of merging biological, mechanical and cybernetic, such a merger should lead to the emergence of a new emancipated subjectivity, a human gadget that can create its own world and its own culture, or to the complete collapse of man as a subject.
How do you deal with creative blocks?
Perova: I usually distance myself from practice, give myself time to rethink, study information that does not relate to the field of art.
Crises and blocks are a great motivation for me to rethink and take a fresh look at the topics I work with and the product I produce.
Alright Perova. I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is. What’s your favorite movie(s) and why?
Perova: I always get lost in answering such simple questions, but I will note
‘The Legend of Kaspar Hauser’ directed by David Manuli. For me, this is a great metaphor between the naive attempt to establish a dialogue between people, with its number of incorrect interpretations and the absolute inability to understand the ‘field of someone else’s experience’.