„Life in plastic. Suffocation“ is a series of paintings that, through classic genres such as still life and portraiture, present the characteristics of modernity.

It is said that we depict the typical, the objects that surrounds us. The packaging is especially important as a new type of object. It no longer carries only the meaning of specialty, mystery. It no longer marks only the separation of objects from everyday life, on the contrary - types of its use are becoming everyday symbols and signs.

The use of disposable plastic bags is a bad sign. The attitude to it varies between a matter of bad taste and an environmental crime. There is a special kind of symbolism involved in the nylon wrapping of the product, which is related to the shift of meanings. It also gives us a new imagery and therefore a new look at the product itself. In order to protect the product, the consumer is ready to suffocate it and to endanger the environment.

This delicate layer, placed between living things such as fruits and vegetables through which their image is deformed, is very reminiscent of the alienation that exists in modern life itself. In this sense, these still lives become images of the contemporary way of living.

Defocused, with options, but sometimes confused, the eye does not know where to rest on - the thin nylon layer or the juicy peach.

About the artist:

Gergana Tabakova is an artist based in Sofia, Bulgaria. She finished her MA degree in Painting at National Academy of Arts, Sofia. At the present moment she is a PhD student at National Academy of Arts, Sofia, investigating the relationship between painting and cinema. A key part of the artist’s credo is to perceive the objects and the situations as an occasion to express their inner potential as immaterial information. Gergana’s art works represent a part of a research in which rudimentary fascination, emotion and thought, engendered by the connection between immaterial and material object, are linked together.