The Fatigue That Is Not Allowed, 2025

Kateryna Kolesnykova  

In this work, a woman lies in a pose that conveys deep fatigue and a need for rest. Her body is relaxed, gliding across a wavy blue background—a space of dreams, sleep, and respite. Her hair flows in a long copper stream, as if rooting her in her own silence. Her face, with half-closed eyes, conveys a moment of honest, human exhaustion—one that women are often not allowed to show.

Behind the woman hangs a sloth—a creature that moves slowly, without haste and without shame for its slowness. It sleeps peacefully, clinging to a branch, fully allowing itself to be slow. In the context of the “Trained Femininity" series, the sloth becomes a symbol of the “lazy" label that society often applies to any female fatigue: if a woman stops, if she is late, if she wants a break—this is interpreted as a flaw, not as a normal human need.

The contrast between the sloth's calm, carefree sleep and the same fatigue that a woman seems forced to hide creates tension: one creature can allow itself to relax, the other cannot. The woman lies down, but her posture is not one of complete freedom, but rather a forced stillness caught between pressure and fatigue.

The background—golden-pink-blue, with quick, scratchy brushstrokes—conveys an inner tremor, a state of exhaustion mixed with a dream of peace. The wave-like circles around the woman resemble the breath she finally allows herself, even if only for a moment.

This painting is about the right to be tired, the right to slow down, and the right to pause. It is about a woman who has finally laid her head down and allowed herself to stop, even as the world around her demands constant productivity. It is an image of gentle resistance—rest as a form of protest.

Series Trained Femininity
The painting is shipped rolled (unstretched, without a frame).
The image size is 110×90 cm, while the canvas measures 118×99 cm to allow extra margins on each side for stretching.