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Yulia Ustinova, the Russian artist, and her ‘ladies’ resonating in the west.

Yulia Ustinova, the Russian artist, uses ‘tetki’-- a Russian word for “uneducated, ungroomed women’ as a foundation for a rich world of women and half-animal creatures.” In an interview with an Australian gallery in 2013, she says she now refers to them as ladies, or ‘plumpies.’ 

Ustinova deftly uses small props to imply stories for her figures. While their poses are relaxed and natural, many of her female figures suggest goddesses, as they play music instruments and appear on pedestals, their generous curves calling to mind the Venus of Willendorf. 

Despite the bright colours, Ustinova’s figures have a realistic weight and spread to their limbs- she uses tightly packed wool and a metal ‘carcass’ inside their colourful skin. And though the figures sparkle with vivacity, Ustinova says that she sees a distilled sadness in them—'a difficult personal life,’ or misfortune in love. With university training in the ‘pictorial arts,’ she currently  works as a professional illustrator. 

While the mythic appeal of her sculptures is obvious, Ustinova’s work is not well known outside Russia. Her work is on permanent display at the Olga Okudzava museum of author dolls, and intermittently at the Central House of Artists.

And she was the artist of the day in an American blog in Visual Diplomacy USA in 2018. 

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“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms … a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” ― Oscar Wilde April 1, 2020

Russian artist Yulia Ustinova
Photo: Yulia Ustinova. A figure on a classical pedestal, suggesting Medusa.

Russian artist Yulia Ustinova A collection of sculptures in the artist’s studio.
Photo: Yulia Ustinova. A collection of sculptures in the artist’s studio.

Russian artist Yulia Ustinova A rare figure without flesh.
Photo: Yulia Ustinova. A rare figure without flesh. The accuracy of the skeleton shows the artist’s professional training.

Russian artist Yulia Ustinova A figure on a circus hoop.
Photo Credit Yulia Ustinova.: A figure on a circus hoop.

Russian artist Yulia Ustinova, Another figure on a hoop. Ustinova’s grasp of weight and anatomy really shows in the arms and feet here.
Photo Credit: Yulia Ustinova Another figure on a hoop. Ustinova’s grasp of weight and anatomy really shows in the arms and feet here.

Russian artist Yulia Ustinova The artist with her ‘ladies’.
Photo: Yulia Ustinova. The artist with her ‘ladies’.

Feature Photo

Russian artist Yulia Ustinova
Photo Credit: Yulia Ustinova. While the chemise here helps create the domestic atmosphere, Ustinova says she prefers the ambiguity of nudity to the ‘doll-like’ quality of clothed figures.

Filed Under: Photo Essay

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