Maya Golyshkina’s papier-mache planet of bog roll bras and butt-naked Barbie miniskirts
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
Courtesy of @_themaiy_
NAME MAYA GOLYSHKINA
AGE 19
LOCATION Moscow, Russia
STAR SIGN Gemini
LIFE MANTRA Have no borders in your mind, be unapologetically yourself.
GO-TO FANCY DRESS Patrick Star
In the space between childhood pop culture and arts-and-craft class, you’ll probably find Maya Golyshkina’s imagination. It’s here on Golyshkina’s eclectic papier-mâché planet that you’ll find its inhabitants flaunting bog roll bras under the supreme reign of Ronald McDonald. The Russian artist has used the past year in lockdown to refine her whimsical eye for creation. Obscuring the ordinary into the outrageous; if it’s not a miniskirt of butt-naked Barbies slung around her hips, she’s forming mermaid couture from playing cards, smashing egg shells into her eye sockets (Covid has truly cracked us all) or going full-frontal pink a la Patrick Star. What started as a boredom antidote quickly evolved into a photo series with Marc Jacobs and several quirky zine collaborations. Somewhat normal but broadly surreal, her work is a satirical mirror pointed at our current livelihoods.
Bringing a new meaning to model-making, Golyshkina both makes and models. After studying art in her early teens the 19-year-old became a photographer, yet found the career’s superficial nature – blame the selfie generation – to be tiresome. So armed with a glue gun, the anything-but-banal artist decided to elicit emotion from everyday items and add jollity back to scrolling of the ‘gram. Alongside turning the monotonous upside down, her work also defies femininity and expectations of female anatomy online: “Boys here see the girl for sex, so when I knock down these walls they think I’m crazy.” By utilising mundane objects as garments she ironically un-objectifies the body. “I can become anything I want to be, a beautiful girl, a sexy girl on my own terms,” she explains. Perhaps the best symbolism is Golyshkina’s carrier dress as a pertinent response to the Katy Perry question: Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Right now, yes.
Alice May Stenson: What first inspired you to experiment with familiar, quotidian objects?
Maya Golyshkina: When I was a photographer I always concentrated on the vision, but others struggled to do my ideas justice. During the pandemic I had time to think and questioned, ‘who can do it better than me?’ Nobody could, so I became a model, a designer and creative director. I see these visions in my head from the objects around me, all these ideas, and I just have to recreate them through art to showcase their beauty.
AMS: How would you define the word ‘art’?
MG: Art means being frank and sincere about yourself. It needs to be felt, described through emotions. It is your individual piece of society but one that is well-researched. It comes from anywhere, whether that be biology, literature or friendships.
AMS: Your work uses cheap materials that are readily available. This opposes the usual ostentation and exclusivity within the arts. What do you think about this?
MG: To me it’s boring to buy fabric and sew it. Why can’t we use something from our own environment as part of our designs? Clothing shouldn’t be reserved for rich people, it should be available to everyone.
AMS: What’s the most difficult thing about making DIY-creations?
MG: The trash in my room! There’s always so much mess and I hate cleaning up after creating. I don’t have enough space so I actually have to get rid of my work.
AMS: From Barbie doll skirts to the concept of playing dress-up, why is childhood so intrinsic with your work?
MG: During my childhood I watched many movies on my bulky computer. We didn’t have social media like today, so I was always absorbing things. Spongebob Squarepants was my favourite of all. I think today, with TIKTOK and easy access to information on our phones, people are becoming lazy. That’s why I think back to simpler, happier times.
AMS: Where would you most like to exhibit your work?
MG: I’d say the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
AMS: Which are your favourite methods and materials to use?
MG: I really like different types of paper, you can find it everywhere and gather it for free. It’s not really heavy and can be adapted in so many different ways from rolls to papier-mâché. Although, I don’t like to concentrate on one material, I hate repetition.
“My Zoom chat with the actual Marc Jacobs was my first ever experience of a video call so the whole thing was surreal.”
AMS: You’ve mentioned your greatest career moment as working with Marc Jacobs. How did this unfold?
MG: I was only 18 and his team contacted me online, I was in shock as he has always been such a significant designer. What’s funny is that my Zoom chat with the actual Marc Jacobs was my first ever experience of a video call so the whole thing was surreal.
AMS: Which are your favourite novels?
MG: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, or my favourite of his, The Karamazov Brothers.
AMS: What’s one thing that you’re grateful for?
MG: That I have the ability to make the world better. When people online write and tell me I inspire them I say I’m always grateful to have freedom through art. Even if I have no money and nobody believes in me just being able to do what I love everyday makes me happy.
AMS: You’ve mentioned how you stray from traditional fashion. But can we ever expect to see a runway collection from you?
MG: I’m likely to try this out, I have some work coming out soon in which other people are wearing my artwork. But since there is no traditional fashion industry in Russia I find it hard to make this my permanent job, it’s not stable here. I’d still love to dress someone like CARDI B or HARRY STYLES, people who support strange visions and contemporary designers.
AMS: Which characters would you like to embody in the future?
MG: I’d love to recreate Eric Cartman from South Park but he’s more difficult to express than most I’ve done before.
AMS: How does your design process play out?
MG: It is a natural extension of my brain, generally I find inspiration from materials lying around my home. For example, yesterday I strolled down the street and I saw a bunch of old newspapers. In my head it created this image, it was a huge wall and I decided to realise it.
AMS: Imagine you’re launching an art show with some of your inspirations. Who is going?
MG: MICHAELA STARK, Jeurgen Teller, ELSA SCHIAPARELLI, Pablo Picasso, Kazimir Malevich. I’d pick Michelangelo Antonioni as a classical film option. Probably JOSHUA GORDAN as he’s contemporary.
AMS: My dream superpower would be...
MG: Having an infinite amount of money for my materials.
AMS: How is your work received by non-creatives?
MG: Where I am, you could say it’s creatively non-developed. Many people are shocked when they see my artwork, they think it’s stupid. It’s a lot about gender division in our country and because I’m not a simple girl they just don’t understand. Even after the Marc Jacobs collaboration people would say, “Why is he working with someone that plays with toilet paper?” or that I’m wasting my time on a pathway that has no stable income.
AMS: If you could live out a fictional movie, which would you star in?
MG: Either something terrifying like The House That Jack Built or I’d play out something more romantic like Alfie because it has Jude Law in it.
AMS: Any words of wisdom for the next generation?
MG: Do what you want, never what is expected of you. Always love and believe in yourself because even if nobody else can, you can. And never be judgemental.
AMS: What are your plans beyond the pandemic?
MG: To leave Russia, the translation work I do and university studies here. I’d love to create more art but also explore linguistics. Mostly I’d love to go to London because of the magazines and creative direction there.
