For Anna Parkina, who works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, video, and performance, collage remains the primary “attitude” that connects the various works across her practice. This also transpires in her recent experiments with three-dimensional objects, where she draws on her idiosyncratic archive of forms and shapes to create a vocabulary of elements that migrate from one medium to another. With this, she expands the opportunities to hide or allude, cut out or, on the contrary, prolong certain surfaces through various materials and play of perspectives, demanding of the viewer a more active attitude in relation to the work. Within the puzzle of shadows, colors, surfaces, and materials, instant architectures arise in order to fall two steps later and make space for other buildings, objects, and memories to come together, alluding to each viewer’s personal collection of images. Building on recent works, Parkina has created a new piece that adds movement to the labyrinth of ever-shifting forms. Combine (2017) is composed of two parts, top and bottom, the latter rotating around its axis on a pedestal. Hanging from the ceiling and lit from within, the top element creates shadows that distort its lower counterpart, adding depth to the otherwise flat surfaces and silhouettes. Relying on the embedded movement in the sculpture, the two parts occasionally coincide forming optically a single sculpture.

Anna Parkina (b. 1979, Moscow, Russia) lives and works in Moscow. She studied at ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena (2005) and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2002–2006). Solo exhibitions include: Eyes instead of the Eye, Regina Gallery, Moscow (2015); and Anna Parkina at The Arts Club, Dover Arts Club, London (2013). Group exhibitions include: Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915–2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Detective, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow (2014); The Team I Can’t Live Without, Regina Gallery, Moscow (2013); Space of Exception, 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2013); Perspectives on Collage, The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2013); and Chambres à part VI, La Réserve, Paris (2012).