The key concept in Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov’s work is the “uncanny valley.” The artist createsworks that frequently feature masks, distorted faces, and forms reminiscent of living beings.

These images evoke a sense of unease and create a conict between recognition andalienation, between the human and the non-human. Masks serve as both a metaphor and atool for bodily dissociation. They create a distance between a person’s physical form and theiridentity. As an instrument of transformation, the mask becomes not merely an object but aseparate organism capable of altering the wearer, weaving itself into their inner world, andinuencing their perception of reality.

Each mask is both a means of protection against vulnerability and an act of aggression.Leather and fabric — the primary materials from which Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov creates hissculptures — become metaphors for the body, memory, and trauma. Leather bears theimprint of time and cruelty, while textiles symbolize softness and fragility. The works are alsobuilt on a play of contradictions: ufy, soothing materials associated with childhood andsafety allow faces with unsettling features to emerge, creating a sense of tension in theviewer. The work “Soft Language” is made of the fragments of the artist's own clothing. Thisgesture outlines the metaphor of physicality and the sense of intimacy.

(c) Anna Nova Gallery

Clothing is the most intimate public surface. It sits between body and world, holding sweat,shape, habit, posture. When those garments are reworked into sculptural skins, a privatearchive becomes visible without turning into confession. The wardrobe becomes a smallcemetery of selves through material that has lived with the body, now preserving the body’sabsence. This is a crucial inversion rather than trying to reveal the self by stripping layersaway, the work acknowledges that the self is produced through layers, through coverings. Atthis moment, identity is not behind the surface, it is formed as surface.

(c) Sungah Serena Choo, Independent Curator