Side by Side

During a long car ride, Najeschdas father discovers that his daughter likes women.

I met many admirable people in St. Petersburg and Moscow, people who stand up for their way of life, in a country that is against homosexuality and against freedom of expression in art, increasingly so under the pretext of religion. It is a burning topic that I want to explore with an ironic story, a fantastic vision.

Beginning with research material and interviews I collected there, I drew a first episode of «Side by Side» around Nadjeschda (hope), the young woman with blue hair. I am planning a whole collection of her friends, acquaintances, family members and their circumstances. This allows me to incorporate the stories I have heard and show the places I have visited. The large plot behind everything, however, encompasses alien creatures and a virus from another planet that has afflicted Putin and turns him into a more and more social, compassionate person. In the beginning, it is little embedded particles like the radio news about Putin wanting to build a hospital for HIV-infected gays and lesbians or him putting flowers on the floor in Donbass and breaking down crying. A strange power starts spreading in Putin land, even bags, figurines, paving stones, images of saints etc become animated and animals have voices. Most character elements emerged from the St. Petersburg drawing stock. The strange creatures from the ancient collection at the Hermitage jumped directly into my sketchbook and became my comic cosmos.

Through the cooperation with my project partner Viktoria Lomasko from Moscow, the different reality that was foreign at the beginning becomes more and more tangible and comes to the fore for me. Still, our intercultural exchange frequently runs into difficulties. It means breaking down one’s own barriers and is a very deep experience. Viktorias critical attitude as an artist, her drawn protest in the service of social minorities inspire me and make me observe my environment with a more attentive eye.

• Drawing ink and coloured pencil on broke

• 29 x 39 cm

• 2015

• Published in Strapazin Nr. 118