On 9 February, the Vladimir Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University opens the exhibition ‘Chrysalis’ by the modern St Petersburg sculptor Antonina Fatkhullina.
Her project is an imaginative reflection on the phenomenon of change and transformation, which began with an experiment in her own workshop on growing six species of living butterflies. Observing this process, the artist scrupulously records movement after movement, trying to unravel the mystery of metamorphosis, i.e. the state of the pupa, or chrysalis. In her sketches, on canvas, in videos, and then in sculpture, Antonina Fatkhullina repeats the lines of the cocoon, studying its design and architecture, and invites viewers to imagine what is going on inside.
‘Chrysalis’ is a site-specific project located in the ‘Green Living Room’, which once witnessed the moment of quiet calm of the past before the inevitable new. In the Green Drawing Room, the sculptor’s works not only echo the entomological passion of Vladimir Nabokov, but also resonate with the main question that he asked his heroes about the possibility of metaphysical death and the immortality of the soul.
