Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome visual artist and filmmaker Aliaksandra Markava with two mixed media works exploring the darker side of fairy tale archetypes. These are not illustrations, but portraits of sensations that the artist encounters while exploring these archetypes. Aliaksandra’s gestures and color fields become a psychic seismograph, tracing the tremors beneath cultural myth. In Snow White, sweeping black lines and dark blots are frosted with a fine layer of white pastel on red paper.
“Snow White symbolizes a variation on misogyny. She hides behind imaginary care, but in fact hides razor-sharp thorns that leave scars in the soul.”
Snow softens and conceals. Aliaksandra blows aside that powdery innocence to expose the violence embedded in idealized femininity. Snow White is not a passive innocent. She weaponizes softness, wielding sweetness as a mask. Participating in her own domestication, she performs the role of the “good girl” with a smile that cuts.
The forms in Bluebeard are more elaborate, more predatory: whips, chains, ladders, nets, and sinuous curves that suggest both seduction and entrapment. The palette is that of a beautiful bruise, rich blues, purples, and bright pinks, creating an atmosphere that is appealing, yet ominous.
“Bluebeard is about the behavior and impact of a violent narcissist or psychopath who, with a mysterious mystique, masks his most disgusting destructive or even sadistic tendencies.”
Here, Aliaksandra confronts the archetype of the charismatic narcissist, the figure whose danger is inseparable from his allure. We wonder why such figures continue to fascinate us, why the forbidden and the dangerous still beckon.
What draws us toward these damaging archetypes? Why do we romanticize the mysterious man with the terrible secret, or aspire to be the compliant girl who sings while she shrinks herself? Are these impulses born of nature, nurture, or the long shadow of cultural conditioning? And—most urgently—can we rewire our sensibilities toward archetypes that empower rather than diminish?
View Aliaksandra’s fascinating artwork in Synkroniciti’s “Audacity” issue, Vol. 8, No. 1, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Aliaksandra Markava has a bachelor’s degree in Screen Arts, majoring in Film and Television Direction. She has worked in television and film production and is the author of several documentaries. At present, Aliaksandra works as an independent filmmaker. She is fond of fine art and photography and participates in international exhibitions to showcase her artworks. Please visit her website, www.markava.art and follow her on Instagram @aliaksandra_sea_mar.