ARTIST STATEMENT / SUBJECT
My work delves into the dark facets of the subconscious, psyche, and human experience, with a focus on physicality.
I seek expression through physiological reactions, states, and functions.
Both in life and death, the body reveals psychic and sacredmanifestations. Different processes explored through coitus, dance, rituals, trances, metamorphosis, killing, and rebirth.
My work begins with emotions that open doors to anxiety, fear, passion, shame.
The ambiguous and repulsive guide my research, often engaging in a dialogue with trauma and personal overcoming.
CV
Multidisciplinary artist, designer, sound/video artist, performer, director, composer.
EDU
A graduate of the St. Petersburg Art Lyceum at the Mukhina School. Studied at the State Architectural University (GASU, St. Petersburg, 2011-2013) and the Repin Academy of Arts (major: easel painting, art historian, 2013-2014). Graduated from the Private School of Perfumers (St. Petersburg, 2015-2016).
From childhood, she was passionate about ballet, and this fascination led her to explore corporeality in performative practices through figurative expression. Under the influence of the ballets of Jiří Kylián, Pina Bausch, Kazuo Ohno, experimental cinema, and theater, she developed her own performative practices. Performance is one of the main mediums in Dagmar's art.
FASHION ART PROJECT
After a trip to Japan, Dagmar entered the fashion industry. Inspired by Japanese contemporary fashion, connected with traditions, cultural codes, and authentic technologies, she launched her own avant-garde brand of clothing and perfumes, Nomad Goba, in 2016. The brand was presented in stores worldwide: London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Sweden, Greece, and France.
SOUND & PERFORMANCE PROJECTS
In her early sound projects, she combined traditional motifs of funeral songs from Siberia and Mongolia to the Balkans and Central Asia, creating her own musical landscape. Dagmar uses analog musical instruments, preferring live sound.
Her performative art during this period was based on her awareness of being close to the Saturnian principle as opposed to the Dionysian, focusing on the theme of sacrifice and the search for new eschatological practices.
This intense period culminated in solo music albums, the first of which was released on the French label Cyclic Law, as well as singles, live performances, and vocal-instrumental improvisations. One of Dagmar’s latest solo albums represents what she calls "a step towards my authenticity, a step towards legitimizing my own madness."
Since 2020, her performative and vocal practices have centered around the exploration and immersion into the sex industry and BDSM. Her interest lies in the intellectual study of sadistic aspects of the psyche, violence, control, and the extreme vulnerability as a powerful resource for processing complex experiences.
Through bodily practices, Dagmar has formulated an artistic statement on the marginal status of sex industry workers and perversions in this area. By drawing attention to this subject, Dagmar also addresses related issues of women's rights and religiously motivated repressive practices against women. The performance is constructed as a ritual of mourning, a lament for the victims of religious persecution. The research inspired the collection "Mondino's Method and 11 Beauties in the Landscapes of Etruria."
VIDEO ART PROJECT
Her video art projects document Dagmar's performances and integrate the artist's sound and dance projects.
RESEARCH SUBJECTS AND MOTIVES
I draw from personal experience.
My work addresses perversions, pathologies, mythological motifs, and ancient art. Themes include decapitation, eros, natural cycles, and the sacred.
I focus on the taboo, the ugly, the sadistic, the fragile, and the psychotic. The canvas is both a space of acceptance and a tool for provoking the viewer, aiming to disturb and incite a meaningful, it uncomfortable, dialogue.
EXHIBITION:
"BATHING IN THE CROCODILE RIVER"
CONCEPT OF THE STAND
The works in this exhibition explore the themes of merging, rituals, and fertility imagery.
They highlight the accompanying psycho-emotional states of transformation: fear, hunger, loneliness.
Most compositions resolve these primal chthonic states into exaltation and blissful integration of any experience, allowing the sensitive viewer to delve deeper into their own darkness and find resources for transformation.
This exhibition features works from two collections (including canvases and ceramics), two graphic cycles, two video arts, and a perfume.
My work delves into the dark facets of the subconscious, psyche, and human experience, with a focus on physicality.
I seek expression through physiological reactions, states, and functions.
Both in life and death, the body reveals psychic and sacredmanifestations. Different processes explored through coitus, dance, rituals, trances, metamorphosis, killing, and rebirth.
My work begins with emotions that open doors to anxiety, fear, passion, shame.
The ambiguous and repulsive guide my research, often engaging in a dialogue with trauma and personal overcoming.
CV
Multidisciplinary artist, designer, sound/video artist, performer, director, composer.
EDU
A graduate of the St. Petersburg Art Lyceum at the Mukhina School. Studied at the State Architectural University (GASU, St. Petersburg, 2011-2013) and the Repin Academy of Arts (major: easel painting, art historian, 2013-2014). Graduated from the Private School of Perfumers (St. Petersburg, 2015-2016).
From childhood, she was passionate about ballet, and this fascination led her to explore corporeality in performative practices through figurative expression. Under the influence of the ballets of Jiří Kylián, Pina Bausch, Kazuo Ohno, experimental cinema, and theater, she developed her own performative practices. Performance is one of the main mediums in Dagmar's art.
FASHION ART PROJECT
After a trip to Japan, Dagmar entered the fashion industry. Inspired by Japanese contemporary fashion, connected with traditions, cultural codes, and authentic technologies, she launched her own avant-garde brand of clothing and perfumes, Nomad Goba, in 2016. The brand was presented in stores worldwide: London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Sweden, Greece, and France.
SOUND & PERFORMANCE PROJECTS
In her early sound projects, she combined traditional motifs of funeral songs from Siberia and Mongolia to the Balkans and Central Asia, creating her own musical landscape. Dagmar uses analog musical instruments, preferring live sound.
Her performative art during this period was based on her awareness of being close to the Saturnian principle as opposed to the Dionysian, focusing on the theme of sacrifice and the search for new eschatological practices.
This intense period culminated in solo music albums, the first of which was released on the French label Cyclic Law, as well as singles, live performances, and vocal-instrumental improvisations. One of Dagmar’s latest solo albums represents what she calls "a step towards my authenticity, a step towards legitimizing my own madness."
Since 2020, her performative and vocal practices have centered around the exploration and immersion into the sex industry and BDSM. Her interest lies in the intellectual study of sadistic aspects of the psyche, violence, control, and the extreme vulnerability as a powerful resource for processing complex experiences.
Through bodily practices, Dagmar has formulated an artistic statement on the marginal status of sex industry workers and perversions in this area. By drawing attention to this subject, Dagmar also addresses related issues of women's rights and religiously motivated repressive practices against women. The performance is constructed as a ritual of mourning, a lament for the victims of religious persecution. The research inspired the collection "Mondino's Method and 11 Beauties in the Landscapes of Etruria."
VIDEO ART PROJECT
Her video art projects document Dagmar's performances and integrate the artist's sound and dance projects.
RESEARCH SUBJECTS AND MOTIVES
I draw from personal experience.
My work addresses perversions, pathologies, mythological motifs, and ancient art. Themes include decapitation, eros, natural cycles, and the sacred.
I focus on the taboo, the ugly, the sadistic, the fragile, and the psychotic. The canvas is both a space of acceptance and a tool for provoking the viewer, aiming to disturb and incite a meaningful, it uncomfortable, dialogue.
EXHIBITION:
"BATHING IN THE CROCODILE RIVER"
CONCEPT OF THE STAND
The works in this exhibition explore the themes of merging, rituals, and fertility imagery.
They highlight the accompanying psycho-emotional states of transformation: fear, hunger, loneliness.
Most compositions resolve these primal chthonic states into exaltation and blissful integration of any experience, allowing the sensitive viewer to delve deeper into their own darkness and find resources for transformation.
This exhibition features works from two collections (including canvases and ceramics), two graphic cycles, two video arts, and a perfume.
THE MONDINO METHOD AND 11 BEAUTIES IN THE LANDSCAPES OF ETRURIA
For me, Mondino is a master who managed to reclaim the human body from the church, transferring it from its deathbed and an exclusively ritual space to a research space that resonates with the situational attributes of the sacrament.
An anatomical theater is a circumstance in which the manifestation of the unconscious is placed on a dissection table and subjected to an act of evisceration-driven by the thirst of a discoverer, with an unbounded, fearless immersion in the subject of research. I aim to establish a foundation that, upon touch, evokes awe, horror, fascination, and disgust.
The canvas serves as a research table upon which elements taken from the sacred inner space of personal experience and the vision of universal human history are examined
Figurative narration becomes a form exposing psycho-emotional experience, sacred and sacrilegious phenomena. It becomes possible to humbly and virtuously touch upon sadism and violence-nurturing every manifestation, making every perverse act a sweet, beloved offspring of nature, the world, and the course of things.
In "Mondino.." watercolors, dry media, ink, charcoal, sanguine, and dry pigments such as hematite and ocher were used.
Calligraphy brushes, sticks, and other alternative materials were also employed.
For me, Mondino is a master who managed to reclaim the human body from the church, transferring it from its deathbed and an exclusively ritual space to a research space that resonates with the situational attributes of the sacrament.
An anatomical theater is a circumstance in which the manifestation of the unconscious is placed on a dissection table and subjected to an act of evisceration-driven by the thirst of a discoverer, with an unbounded, fearless immersion in the subject of research. I aim to establish a foundation that, upon touch, evokes awe, horror, fascination, and disgust.
The canvas serves as a research table upon which elements taken from the sacred inner space of personal experience and the vision of universal human history are examined
Figurative narration becomes a form exposing psycho-emotional experience, sacred and sacrilegious phenomena. It becomes possible to humbly and virtuously touch upon sadism and violence-nurturing every manifestation, making every perverse act a sweet, beloved offspring of nature, the world, and the course of things.
In "Mondino.." watercolors, dry media, ink, charcoal, sanguine, and dry pigments such as hematite and ocher were used.
Calligraphy brushes, sticks, and other alternative materials were also employed.
CANVASES
TRIPTYCH "VEIL, BROTHERS, AND PLAYING WITH A CHARRED HEAD"
Dimensions: 185 × 240 cm
From the series: Study of the Sadism of Forgiveness and Transformation
This triptych is an exploration of sadism intertwined with themes of redemption and transformation. The composition features a hermaphrodite, face shrouded in a diaphanous veil, a boy engaging with a serpent, and Siamese twins set against a backdrop adorned with numerous golden heads.
These figures symbolize various phases of ithyphallic expression and the metamorphosis of psychological states through the lens of physicality and gender. The artwork delves into the complexities of identity and transformation, employing corporeal imagery to convey deeper insights into the human condition. The visual narrative articulates the interplay of forgiveness, punishment, and the evolution of self in a meticulously layered tableau
€13,000
Dimensions: 185 × 240 cm
From the series: Study of the Sadism of Forgiveness and Transformation
This triptych is an exploration of sadism intertwined with themes of redemption and transformation. The composition features a hermaphrodite, face shrouded in a diaphanous veil, a boy engaging with a serpent, and Siamese twins set against a backdrop adorned with numerous golden heads.
These figures symbolize various phases of ithyphallic expression and the metamorphosis of psychological states through the lens of physicality and gender. The artwork delves into the complexities of identity and transformation, employing corporeal imagery to convey deeper insights into the human condition. The visual narrative articulates the interplay of forgiveness, punishment, and the evolution of self in a meticulously layered tableau
€13,000
"MOTHER, TWO HEADS OF SHEEP, AND CONSEQUENCES"
Mixed media: canvas, watercolor, natural pigments, pastel, sanguine, charcoal, ink.
Dimensions: 200 × 130 cm
This work juxtaposes the nurturing essence of motherhood with the inexorable march of time and the somber reality of birth. Fertility's blessing, in its paradoxical nature, becomes a harbinger of mortality. The depiction of two ram heads evokes ancient Egyptian mythology, where the solar deity, entering the realm of shadows, transforms into an aged figure bearing four ram heads.
Through this lens, the painting explores the duality of creation and destruction, life and death, and the cyclical nature of existence.
The sacrificial imagery, layered with mythological allusions, underscores the inevitable consequence that accompanies the act of creation, merging themes of benevolence and tragic inevitability.
€7000
Mixed media: canvas, watercolor, natural pigments, pastel, sanguine, charcoal, ink.
Dimensions: 200 × 130 cm
This work juxtaposes the nurturing essence of motherhood with the inexorable march of time and the somber reality of birth. Fertility's blessing, in its paradoxical nature, becomes a harbinger of mortality. The depiction of two ram heads evokes ancient Egyptian mythology, where the solar deity, entering the realm of shadows, transforms into an aged figure bearing four ram heads.
Through this lens, the painting explores the duality of creation and destruction, life and death, and the cyclical nature of existence.
The sacrificial imagery, layered with mythological allusions, underscores the inevitable consequence that accompanies the act of creation, merging themes of benevolence and tragic inevitability.
€7000
"GIFTS OF THE THREE-FACED FATHER"
Dimensions: 200 × 130 cm
Mixed media: canvas, watercolor, natural pigments, pastel, sanguine, charcoal, ink.
In this tableau, a boy, a youth, and an elder nourish a mute girl with pomegranates.
This scene embodies themes of both violence and fertility. The painting, the first in the "Projections" series, portrays the silent acceptance of offerings from a tripartite figure.
The act of "feeding with pomegranates" serves as a potent yet delicate metaphor; deities are indifferent to what humanity places upon their altars—be it charred flesh or spilled blood The pomegranate emerges as a psychopomp, symbolizing oblivion, the transition through gates, fecundity, and the compulsion to rule.
It also represents the seed embraced by the feminine form, subverting the nurturing imagery of feeding with an unsettling yet consensual undertone.
€7000
Dimensions: 200 × 130 cm
Mixed media: canvas, watercolor, natural pigments, pastel, sanguine, charcoal, ink.
In this tableau, a boy, a youth, and an elder nourish a mute girl with pomegranates.
This scene embodies themes of both violence and fertility. The painting, the first in the "Projections" series, portrays the silent acceptance of offerings from a tripartite figure.
The act of "feeding with pomegranates" serves as a potent yet delicate metaphor; deities are indifferent to what humanity places upon their altars—be it charred flesh or spilled blood The pomegranate emerges as a psychopomp, symbolizing oblivion, the transition through gates, fecundity, and the compulsion to rule.
It also represents the seed embraced by the feminine form, subverting the nurturing imagery of feeding with an unsettling yet consensual undertone.
€7000
GRAPHIC
The graphic cycle preceded the "Mondino Method" cycle and forms part of the autoerotic graphic diary "Cutta-percha Son of Stone Fathers and Iron Mother" - a visually poetic exploration by the artist of the dream world and a revision of biographical events.
Another graphic cycle: "Eros, Curious People, and a Multitude of Heads"
Another graphic cycle: "Eros, Curious People, and a Multitude of Heads"
The artist's graphic work spans multiple cycles. She approaches her graphic works as an autoerotic diary—a unique, self-ironic form of cyclical engagement with the creative process.
Often unconscious, drawing on dream materials, she delves into the exploration of spaces where self-generating symbols and a dialogue with spatial desire, fear, and ecstasy emerge.
The artist considers graphic work as the exposed nerve of thought. In smaller formats, themes of pleasure and the eroticization of otherness are more actively explored.
€800
Often unconscious, drawing on dream materials, she delves into the exploration of spaces where self-generating symbols and a dialogue with spatial desire, fear, and ecstasy emerge.
The artist considers graphic work as the exposed nerve of thought. In smaller formats, themes of pleasure and the eroticization of otherness are more actively explored.
€800
Her work reflects a powerful stance on the complex experience of being—a child, a human, a girl, an artist, a boy, a desiring being, a living being. Her imagery transforms vulnerable zones into growth and strength. The artist portrays anthropomorphic beings, sphinxes, and chimeras from both Western and Eastern traditions-multi-gendered, expanding forms that inhabit space. She creates multi-layered, ambivalent scenarios rich in eroticism, granting freedom to all manifestations, and observes with affection the transformation of these newly formed images.
The cycle "The Gutta-Percha Son of Stone Fathers and an Iron Mother." is filled with autobiographical narratives—a metaphor for emotional experiences.
€800
The cycle "The Gutta-Percha Son of Stone Fathers and an Iron Mother." is filled with autobiographical narratives—a metaphor for emotional experiences.
€800
The new cycle within the collection "The Little Goat, the Anaconda, and the Total Solar" focuses more on relationships, delving into the exploration of forms of mental interaction and the transmission of sensual and sentient experience into the realm of the metaphysical.
€800
€800
WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION "THE KID, THE CROCODILE, AND THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE"
The collection explores the oral stage of development, fusion, and play, inspired by expedition notes from East Timor. Fusions can be both exhilarating and unsettling, challenging notions of individuality and autonomy, inviting viewers to contemplate the surrender of self for deeper connection and understanding. On the other hand, fusions provide fertile ground for exploring themes of connection, unity, and transcendence.
The theme is rich with metamorphoses and the internal dynamics of compositions.
The theme is rich with metamorphoses and the internal dynamics of compositions.
CENTRAL PAINTING:
"DISSOLUTION. BATHING IN THE CROCODILE RIVER"
Description: Seven figures. A blue figure lovingly witnesses the existence of other figures, transforming into the river. The red figures are dominated by a motif of hunger.
Inspiration: An homage to the legend of Osiris, Where Osiris's body lay for three nights in the Nile, devoured by fish.
€10,000
"DISSOLUTION. BATHING IN THE CROCODILE RIVER"
Description: Seven figures. A blue figure lovingly witnesses the existence of other figures, transforming into the river. The red figures are dominated by a motif of hunger.
Inspiration: An homage to the legend of Osiris, Where Osiris's body lay for three nights in the Nile, devoured by fish.
€10,000
RED PAINTING: "PRESENCE IN A COMPLEX CONVERSATION"
Description: Multiple figures on the canvas.
A black figure is forced to understand the structure of the red figures, stuck in a strong hand holding a pomegranate. Meanwhile, a red figure, post-feast, engages in a pleasant dispute with an intelligent head.
€7000
Description: Multiple figures on the canvas.
A black figure is forced to understand the structure of the red figures, stuck in a strong hand holding a pomegranate. Meanwhile, a red figure, post-feast, engages in a pleasant dispute with an intelligent head.
€7000
OCHRE PAINTING: "FEAST"
Description: Reflects themes of communal eating and interaction.
The devoured pomegranate still gleams between the ribs. It has transtormed into a translucent seed-head with a rosy face, watching over the pair. The second face of the dark figure revels in the volleys of the golden sun
€7000
Description: Reflects themes of communal eating and interaction.
The devoured pomegranate still gleams between the ribs. It has transtormed into a translucent seed-head with a rosy face, watching over the pair. The second face of the dark figure revels in the volleys of the golden sun
€7000
JOY OF MAINTAINING AN ELEGANT BALANCE IN ITS DUAL NATURE WITH EVEN MORE COMPLEX STRUCTURES
In the painting, Siamese twins represent dissociation, the trance of splitting; simultaneously embodying the duality of the androgynous/Hermes, who was depicted as androgynous by some accounts, dating back to the Pelasgians before the rise of the Mycenaean civilization. On the shoulders of the central figure rests a being of multiple potentials of chaos. A kind of rider balancing on a horse.
€7000
In the painting, Siamese twins represent dissociation, the trance of splitting; simultaneously embodying the duality of the androgynous/Hermes, who was depicted as androgynous by some accounts, dating back to the Pelasgians before the rise of the Mycenaean civilization. On the shoulders of the central figure rests a being of multiple potentials of chaos. A kind of rider balancing on a horse.
€7000
JOY 2: REFLECTION ON THE POSSIBILITY OF NATURE EXCHANGE AMONG VARIOUS PHENOMENA
The kiss of the blue and stone figures. The blue figure leaves its head at the base of the composition for the act of mutuality.
€7000
The kiss of the blue and stone figures. The blue figure leaves its head at the base of the composition for the act of mutuality.
€7000
JOY 3: THE JOY OF CONSTANCY
A reflection on the possibility of understanding phenomena without integrating the direct signs of the known. The pink figure learns the secrets of the stone figures and becomes even more pink.
€7000
A reflection on the possibility of understanding phenomena without integrating the direct signs of the known. The pink figure learns the secrets of the stone figures and becomes even more pink.
€7000
CERAMICS, GLAZE, TUFF
BLACK LAVA EATING A GOAT
Description: The goat is accompanied by three heads and two pink figures: one ithyphallic, sitting by the goat's front legs, and the other relaxed, resting under the goat's hind legs.
The goat is consumed by a black spot of lava, while the pink figures are consumed by the goat.
€1000
Description: The goat is accompanied by three heads and two pink figures: one ithyphallic, sitting by the goat's front legs, and the other relaxed, resting under the goat's hind legs.
The goat is consumed by a black spot of lava, while the pink figures are consumed by the goat.
€1000
PLAY WITH CROCODILES IN FULL WATERS
Description: In Ancient Egypt, the crocodile, due to its unpredictable behavior, symbolized chaos. Sobek, aside from his dark functions, as a transmitter of chaos, also related to areas of eros and fertility-the Nile floods, and amidst the bitten heads, fertile land emerges.
€1000
Description: In Ancient Egypt, the crocodile, due to its unpredictable behavior, symbolized chaos. Sobek, aside from his dark functions, as a transmitter of chaos, also related to areas of eros and fertility-the Nile floods, and amidst the bitten heads, fertile land emerges.
€1000
HEAVY HEADS OF GRAINS
Description: A group dancing in a ritual circle with heavy heads carries a female figure symbolizing the strange joy of her tribe, demonstrated to the heavens. A reflection on fertility cults.
€1000
Description: A group dancing in a ritual circle with heavy heads carries a female figure symbolizing the strange joy of her tribe, demonstrated to the heavens. A reflection on fertility cults.
€1000
AUTOEROTIC GROUP
Description: A second reflection on fertility. The self-regenerating Osiris, swallowing his seed, witnessed by other gods.
€1000
Description: A second reflection on fertility. The self-regenerating Osiris, swallowing his seed, witnessed by other gods.
€1000
PERFUME COMPOSITION
"Unbearable."
A set of arson, metal oxidation, cold and living creatures. The composition is poetic, thoughtful, rather bewitching, but radically hooligan at the start.
Hawthorn earth.wormwood•cardamom•pepper
Candle burning•petitgrain-marigold water lily• galbanum•violet-tobacco•peat
Tar-mignonette-rose-fig opoponax magnolia absolute•tonka bean•Iris•vanilla absolute•castoreum•spices
A bunch of wolf cubs sleeping on a dying fire, surrounded by a centuries-old swamp.
In the thickets of the saro, foreign naiads dance in a circle - their breath smells of copper while they sing their lullabies, their chests are decorated with champaka, they themselves are red-hot iron.
A set of arson, metal oxidation, cold and living creatures. The composition is poetic, thoughtful, rather bewitching, but radically hooligan at the start.
Hawthorn earth.wormwood•cardamom•pepper
Candle burning•petitgrain-marigold water lily• galbanum•violet-tobacco•peat
Tar-mignonette-rose-fig opoponax magnolia absolute•tonka bean•Iris•vanilla absolute•castoreum•spices
A bunch of wolf cubs sleeping on a dying fire, surrounded by a centuries-old swamp.
In the thickets of the saro, foreign naiads dance in a circle - their breath smells of copper while they sing their lullabies, their chests are decorated with champaka, they themselves are red-hot iron.