I task myself with finding a new genre of visual expression that is representative of the contemporary Asian geopolitical psyche without the influence of Western stereotypes. One main strand of my work includes taking the imagery of traditional Asian tropes and questioning it in a humorous or insouciant way through the physical manipulation of paint. The second strand involves extensive research comparing contemporary popular images that relate to both classical Chinese culture and paintings.

My work combines different imagistic rules and visual languages to create new dimensions that are almost always located in a “wonder world.” These reflect reality—from personal experiences, to events happening in our surroundings. I place characters in different settings, experiment with space and rhythm, then create paintings that become curious simulacra.

In my current work, I explore the history of colonization by embracing simple methods of crafting the environment so as to emphasize the primitive qualities of the materials. For example, I utilize the fluidity of house paint by dripping it on the work; I represent the absorbency and malleability of drop cloth by leaving it bare and wrinkled. Abstracting images of the African Diaspora allows me to present Blackness in a vulnerable and primitive state, one in which it often isn’t allowed to exist.

I gravitate to the playfulness of objects and their potential for transformation. My practice calls attention to the relationships between our bodies and the things we surround ourselves with. My goal is to put divergent objects into a whole. Different materials, surfaces, and shapes help me represent personifications with unique attributions that can coexist together. When constructing entities through painting, sculpture, and other processes, I avoid direct representations of human bodies to create autonomous objects that expand on the idea of what constitutes a body.

Despite art being passively present as I was growing up, I ended up studying aviation. While dealing with this universal decision, my honesty, intuition, and spontaneity from childhood were deteriorating. So, I quit aviation and moved to the United States, where my work now questions cultural roles, stereotypes, and uncertainties about identity. I explore a fantasy world that is fused with representational figuration of what remains of our genuine self as we “grow up” and adapt to society, incorporating the only toy remaining in adulthood: imagination.

Polina Tereshina uses a wide range of vocabulary, from the language of zines and protest, to that of abstract expressionism. Tereshina weaves together the discourse of the white cube with comic book humor, reflecting on canonical ideological constructs. By condensing binaries of representation, such as abstraction and gender, as well as other cultural tropes, she creates areas of openness where these categories begin to lose their assertive power.