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Anastassia Zamaraeva, Dinnies (Hungry and ready to eat.) 2022, one of the surreal ceramics and sculptures by Anastassia Zamaraeva. Photo: Artist

BY KAZEEM ADELEKE

My first introduction to Anastassia Zamaraeva’s artwork occurred on Instagram. The initial piece that caught my eye was a white sculpture depicting a woman seated on the floor, her hands and legs folded, head bowed in what seemed like resignation or demoralization. Clutched in her hand is a black glob. Before even glancing at the title of the piece, I found myself pondering its significance. “What does the clump represent?” I wondered. “Is it symbolic of the woman’s pain? Why does she seem passive, not attempting to contain the glob that appears to be oozing uncontrollably?”

This is the essence of Zamaraeva’s artistry. Her surreal ceramics and sculptures prompt viewers to delve into their own experiences and seek meaning. The sculpture, titled The Thing I Can’t Contain (2022), invites contemplation about how we handle things beyond our control. Do we resign ourselves, like the sculpture, and allow problems (glob) to overwhelm us?

Delving into the pain depicted in the white sculpture becomes even more poignant when the artist’s context is revealed. Zamaraeva added to the title, “A rumination on my experience with endometriosis.” According to the World Health Organization (WHO), endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing severe pelvic pain and fertility issues.

Expressing Human Experiences Through Surreal Ceramics

The Thing I Can’t Contain is just one of the sculptures through which the artist explores the human experience. Another notable piece is Dinnies (2022), featuring a nude figure hunched over an empty plate, fork, and knife in hand, with purple rings around her eyes suggesting starvation. The viewer is left to speculate about the woman’s story, but her hunger is unmistakable. As Zamaraeva states, “Hungry and ready to eat.” Yet, the absence of food raises questions.

Surrender (2022) is another piece that reflects the artist’s journey. It depicts a woman crouched over, seemingly in supplication or surrender. The sculpture embodies a powerful acceptance of life’s challenges. Zamaraeva explains, “I made this piece when a lot of things had been feeling difficult. At that point, I’d come to realize that much of the difficulty was my own resistance and expectation that things should be easier. So this piece is the opposite of that resistance. It’s surrender. Accepting the challenging things as an intrinsic part of life and riding the waves.”

Dreams, Teeth, and the Quest for a Cure

In I Dream of Teeth (2022), Zamaraeva’s ceramic sculpture portrays a woman with her head bent, and a hole in her stomach from which teeth are falling out. This piece explores how real-life experiences translate into dreams. Zamaraeva shares, “I had a laparoscopic surgery where an incision was made through my belly button. For a year, I continued to have issues with the incision site. One night I dreamed that I pulled a horse tooth out of my belly button and that it resolved the problem. This piece is an exploration of that dream and the real experience.”

Zamaraeva’s ceramic sculptures, while surreal, poignantly communicate themes of myth, love, life, the environment, and death. Her series on slugs is particularly intriguing, born out of her struggle working with porcelain. When the medium limited her to creating sausage shapes, she innovated by adding antennae, transforming them into slugs that touch upon our “shadow aspects” and evoke strong emotional responses.

Her artistic process begins with sketching out ideas before bringing them to life in three dimensions using grog, a type of clay that gives her pieces a coarser texture and resilience against cracks. This choice of medium allows her to create a diverse range of subjects, from human figures and body parts to trees, plants, and mollusks.

About Anastassia Zamaraeva

A UK-based ceramic artist, Anastassia Zamaraeva, discovered her passion for clay at a young age in Canada. Although she initially pursued a BA in Architecture and worked in the field, her love for ceramics remained steadfast. In 2018, she decided to return to ceramics, completing an MA in Art Psychotherapy, which has profoundly influenced her work. Her art now melds art and therapy, exploring the complexities of human existence with themes of melancholy, discomfort, and humor.

Her work has been featured in prestigious exhibitions, including the Winter Exhibition at Thrown Contemporary Online and the London Potters Members Exhibition at Morley Gallery in London in 2023, as well as “Uncommon Beauty: Objects of Curiosity and Wonder” at Craft in the Bay in Cardiff. Most recently, her ceramic sculptures were displayed at the Open Wide III exhibition at Open 205 in Deptford, London. In April, she will be showcasing her pieces in the group exhibition “Festoon” at Underbank Studios in Stockport, England.

Anastassia Zamaraeva’s artistic journey is one of passion, dedication, and evolution. Her unique approach to ceramics, influenced by her background in architecture and art therapy, sets her apart in the world of contemporary art. Through her work, she invites us to explore our own experiences and emotions, making her a truly remarkable artist. You can see more of the artist’s work on her website and Instagram.