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“Natura”, nudity and artistic process

Through nudity and the artistic process, I challenge both cultural expectations and my own boundaries, engaging with themes of feminism and self-expression.

”I could still feel that optimism vibrating through the decades: that our bodies are full of power, and furthermore that their power is not despite but because of their manifest vulnerabilities.” Olivia Laing. «Everybody».

It’s been a year and a half since I started working as a model in the sculpture workshop of the Tbilisi Academy of Arts. The frozen body is like a metaphor for my life, frozen the moment Russia invaded Ukraine and my husband and I moved to Georgia.

Tskneti, Georgia, 2023

In Georgian, Russian, and several other languages, the word ’Natura’ refers to a model posing for painters and sculptors.

Udzo Monastery, Georgia, 2022

In Latin, the same word means nature. Students look at me, study, sculpt, perceive my body as an object for learning. I document the process and results of our work. By being completely naked, I show my openness. This desperate step was taken with the hope of getting closer to others and overcoming the feeling of alienation in exile.

Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Georgia, 2023

My body is my only home. I will hide in it, as if in a shell, among the trees, mountains and caves, among the ancient places of a foreign country. Nature is what is inside me and what surrounds me, it brings peace and consolation.

Village near small city Akhaltsikhe, Georgia, 2023

I am a nature frozen in time, a model for creating a sculpture, I am a sculpture myself. I feel connected to all living creatures, but at the same time I feel alone. I’m trying to integrate into the new world without losing myself, my identity and roots. But who am I? I have character, I must be strong, I must rise up and start moving forward. But for now I look more like a person standing on the station platform while the train rushes past at great speed.

Kojori, Georgia, 2024
Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Georgia, 2023
Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Georgia, 2023
Tbilisi, Georgia, 2022
The Batumi Botanical Garden, Georgia, 2023
Kazbegi, Georgia, 2023
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Daria Nazarova

Daria Nazarova (b. 1991, Russia) is a visual artist working with documentary photography, archive, book projects. She is a member of the Union of… More »

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