the liminal body
This series underlines the transformative potential of the body as image. Yelena works with the environment and her body to transform bare life into art, using body language to create the artistic dimension. In this series Yelena mimics the poses of women as depicted in famous paintings. Often, she stretches the limits of her body to reproduce exaggerated postures that simply do not align with potential of the body in real life. Twisting her body to match details in paintings often causes pain. This leads to the realisation that elevated body language of art history is in fact unattainable. Although it is not as criticized as fashion models in magazines nowadays, art historical body language attests of the same unrealistic ideal projected on women. The result of the exercise is pleasing, however ambiguous taking physical discomfort into account.
