Shurale (2021 year)

Shurale resides in the shadowy Urman forest, far from the sun’s rays. He finds wandering visitors in the wilderness and tickles them to death with his long, slender fingers. Swimming across the river is the only way out of Shurale. I was born and raised in Tatarstan, the home of the national mythological figure Shurale. My father used to say that a woman’s wedding and marriage are the most significant events in her life, and that everything else is irrelevant. I married at the age of 22, and I filed for divorce eleven years later. I found this phase to be really challenging. During the first few months following the divorce, I only experienced anguish, anxiety, and loneliness. Although many women experience this, it was unimaginable to me to live “without a husband.” Over the course of a year, I worked on the project as a means of reflection on what was going on. Shurale’s woodland serves as a metaphor for the existential loneliness that a person must experience in order to come to terms with who they are. And I was the forest’s resident monster.

During psychotherapy sessions, we discussed the necessity of “bandaging” wounds that ought to heal, leaving only scars. I stripped off layers and masks from myself and explored the subconscious for Shurale. I noticed the golden brightness of the sun after escaping Shurale by crossing the river. 

In my artwork, I blend historical artifacts with contemporary imagery and mythology with realism. The body is a battlefield where people battle for their sense of self, while masks, knives, scars, and wounds are objects of a terrifying story. I’m helped with this by the ritualistic burning of my mask, submersion in water, and burial of the bridal clothes. Is it possible to fully escape from oneself, though? I alternate between the riverbank and the forest, occasionally gazing back at the light and occasionally into the shadows.

Book size 18×25.5 cm

40 pages

Open binding

Limited edition of 50 copies (signed and numbered)

Paper: Metrica 120g, 4 tracing paper pages

Each book is entirely assembled by hand