the red woman
In 2008 Yelena was triggered by the prevalence of terrorists in the news and connected it to the medieval werewolf paranoia. She was fascinated by the overlapping theme of violent outburst. In the middle ages, people were stigmatised, followed, and killed upon suspicion of being a werewolf. The same thing is happening today with terrorists, while reality is blown out of proportion! Over the years, a series of performances developed around this topic. During these performances Yelena undergoes a transformation into her alter ego "the red woman" by changing clothes and body painting herself red. This is followed by an action, such as hula hooping, using a blow dryer in her face or skipping rope. These actions symbolize violent outburst that Yelena emotionally connects to, although she filters this into art instead of promoting violence. Through this act, Yelena tries to raise public awareness of mortality. Death is immanent and can happen to anybody, anytime, and we should be mindful of life.
