Oksana Sokolova

Snails

Project Statement

Sokolova started the Snail research project in Provence, France as she spotted a group of white snails. The creatures raised her awareness as they seemed very aesthetic in a way they were glued on one another on a rock. As she tried to take a photography of her neatly arranged white shells, the snails started to move destroying her design. 

This moment brought her to an idea to put a structure together and organise a system that in turn could make the snails work for her. 

The allegory to George Orwell ‘Animal Farm’ seems nearly obvious. The snails, representing humans, put in a system that would be managed by an authority, the artist, herself.

The project brought to life multiple artworks from photography, gesso paintings, installation and objects with little snail sculptures. 

The “Snails” project recounts the experience of a person who holds power. Are people’s lives of equal value to those who hold power and those who are subject to it? Are lives of power holders and their subjects rated equally? The question of freedom is at the heart of this project. Any freedom can be restricted if a third party seeks to do so. For my part, I wanted to explore this subject from the point of view of the “manipulator”, or “superior authority” as I call it. 

Oksana Sokolova, 2024, from an interview with the gallerist Ilona Keilich.

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