Pregnant Figure series

Maria Kulikovska's sculpture from the Pregnant Figure series is a symbol of life, resilience, and faith in the future, created in response to war, exile, and uncertainty. Pregnant Figure embodies the idea of life continuing even in the darkest of times.

The form of the female body, cast from the artist’s own body when she was five months pregnant—just a few months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—is both a personal and collective archetype. It represents all women who are forced to give birth, live, and survive during war, carrying new life within them despite pain, fear, and destruction.

The sculpture’s golden color imbues it with a sacred presence, referencing Byzantine icons, pagan fertility cults, and ritual statues of mother goddesses. It is an embodiment of strength, sanctity, and the immortality of life that endures even when everything seems destroyed. In many cultures, gold symbolizes eternity, purity, and transcendence—it becomes a kind of spiritual shield, protecting the body from annihilation and oblivion.

Pregnant Figure is a manifesto meant to be installed in different corners of the world as a testament that even after death and destruction, life emerges again. It stands as a visual reminder that the history of humankind is a history of survival, and that even in the darkest times, a woman continues to carry the future within her.