Dream of a Three-Headed Dragon

Year

2023

Medium

Paper/mixed media

Dimensions

42x30

Series

Dreams of Immigration

This work continues the Dreams of Immigration series and turns to the image of a fairy tale hell. Here, it is understood as a space of trial, familiar from fairy tales and myths of different cultures: a place where the hero arrives after crossing a symbolic border and encounters monsters, temptations, and fears. At the centre of the composition appears a huge blue serpent, close to the image of a three-headed dragon. It becomes the very environment in which the other characters exist, resembling a labyrinth for the heroes of the painting. The motif of apples intensifies the feeling of a forbidden garden turning into a dangerous place. Here, the apple becomes a recurring sign of temptation, choice, and the later reckoning for mistakes made. There are many heroes in this work. All of them seem to be trapped inside one large fairy tale trial. The work speaks about the moment when a foreign world can no longer be ignored. One has to enter it, pass through its monsters, learn its rules, and try not to lose oneself within this process. In the painting, fairy tale allegory becomes a way of speaking about the chaos of adaptation. This is a mythological space of transition, where a painful but necessary transformation begins.