In our digital era it is not uncommon for photographers to search for more physical presence. Having started her career in contemporary art as a photographer, Pelulya (Polina Abramova) shifted to analogue collage, which allowed her to deconstruct the gaze of the viewer. What is more, the artist managed to turn the act of looking into the act of assembling

Pelulya's practice explores the intersection of corporeal and social issues such as perception of a female body, meeting the expectations of the others, social media pressure and the politics of the cultural system. Her art is tactile, rather self-reflexive, persistently upholding the presence of the image as a made object, thus also referring to objectification of women. In her series The Chainmail, the message is not that corporeal as it might seem at first sight. The emphasis made on female power is underscored by complete lack of sentiment and detached viewpoint of the artist.

Almost absent background makes the body quite abstract, taken out of context, lifeless, which intentionally objectifies the subject. Cropping the corporeal parts amplifies this effect, resulting in lower empathy by the viewer. Moreover, the front-facing perspective reminds of paper cut-out dolls – no girl has ever been interested in the two-dimensional body, while being totally concentrated on paper clothes that these toys were wearing. Similarly in this case, the emphasis is also made not on the abstract body but on the weird dress.

This is where deconstruction becomes more evident as an artistic method. Cut and thorn fragments atomize the reality, and become a ritual gesture. 'This citationality, duplication, or duplicity, this iterability of the mark' as it was put by Jacques Derrida, is the essence of Pelulya's visual language. This repetitive method develops uncanny effect: anxiety and vague uncomfortable feeling, aggravated by dangerous presence of pins. The process of overlaying a surreal context onto corporeal references makes the familiar strange, thereby drawing the attention of the viewer.

Multiple eyes are staring with the same insensitivity as the camera of a photographer. Being a heavy burden for the body carrying them, the eyes can be viewed as a protective shield, or chainmail. At the same time, these countless looks might be a metaphor of judging, labeling, condemning society. Chainmail made of pins is losing its purely protective function and irradiates potential threat. For the time being, the pins are closed which might be seen as temporary state. However, irrespective of their meaning, ripped out eyes and potentially sharp objects generate disturbing gut feeling that provokes to viewer to question its source.

Choosing collage as her medium, Pelulya definitely inherits aloofness of the camera from the photography. At the same time, she adds bold expression and visceral emotions via deconstruction. The physical nature of Pelulya's works divorces itself from the heavily digital images overwhelming today's collages. Selective transparency of her artistic language strongly focuses on what is needed to be seen, thus uncovering the truth, not only of words but of images.