THE TABLE 2

"You set a table when guests are expected. ... The porcelain edition is based on the series of watercolors that the artist has been continuing since 2016. Some were carried out on official forms and originally had a sensual and political connotation. Gender, sexuality, and their role and acceptance in Eastern Europe have long been Maria's themes, also communicated in her performances, videos, and sculptures. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the work has taken on a painful context. The red tones of these bodies not only glow, but they also bleed. After the crimes of Butscha and Irpin, Bila Tserkva and Chernihiv, this flesh hardly seems erotic, but rather extremely vulnerable and wounded, literally as if served on a platter and exposed to strangers' gaze. The plates and cups appear more than full due to the body motifs, and yet they are empty." (Olena Balun)