After a long break, Polina Babaeva has returned to showing at art fairs. For Art Russia she prepared a new series, Dreams of Japan. For this edition of the fair she presented the paired composition Night and Day, in which time is personified in two beautiful young women and in a leopard and a panther — a black leopard; the paintings Fuji and Lone Leopard, where the interior, serving simultaneously as a landscape, creates a meditative mood; and the symmetrical composition Celestial Harmony and The Samurai's Dream.
The latter presents a seemingly simple scene: against a peaceful, idyllic natural setting, children are surrounded by crocodiles — symbols of strength, or embodiments of life and death. The dream of childhood thus becomes both a premonition of change and a wish to hide from the stresses of adult life, to find comfort and safety.
