The School of Athens

The title of the exhibition refers to Raphael’s fresco «The School of Athens», where the author depicted the great thinkers of different Greek eras, who laid the foundation of the Western intellectual tradition up to the present day. Turning to the topic of ancient Greece, Anastasia is looking for ways to understand the «difficult problem of consciousness» that interests her, as a psychologist turns to childhood looking for answers to the questions of today."

In his practice, the artist reflects and reflects on the theme of architecture, philosophy and religion of ancient Greece: on the one hand, the understanding of the world as a Whole, and on the other, the lack of an independent Personality in it.

In our time, when everything is centered around the concept of the Self-self, the artist suggests rethinking ancient knowledge — to move away from personal perception of oneself, to understanding oneself as a set of a single common system. As a result, it can become a useful experience in finding a new connection with the outside world. «Having become someone, a person has ceased to be everything!» Plotin

The Greek world is «not becoming, but existing», there is no past and future in it, there is no direction and periodicity, there is only the present — a specific moment of time of a particular day. A person feels like everything, there are no boundaries defining personal space-the feeling of himself as a Person. Anastasia’s works make a holistic impression: the boundaries of forms and colors are lost, there is no center in the work as an indicator of Individuality, there is no background as a sign of time and space.

The artist is also interested in the picturesque integration of ancient architecture into the landscape. Architecture, like a person, was perceived as a Whole, not discontinuously connected with the world, so temples were built as a continuation of the landscape. Anastasia refers to the shape of repeating rectangles, where one of the images is a Column-a symbol of the connection of the earthly and underground world, an image.

The tree trunk is a symbol of the divine in the Greek mysteries and the designation of the number 1 is a symbol of the absolute God in Pythagoras.

In her practice, Anastasia also draws attention to one of the most important ancient knowledge — the philosophy of Plato. «All subsequent philosophy is just a commentary on Plato.» The philosopher was the first to propose the division of the world into spiritual=rational and sensual=tonsured by sight, smell and hearing. Just the latter — the world of" illusions, shadows, appearances «is explored by the artist in his works. Pictorially reflecting on the world of Images as «a set of ghostly, transitive, reflected phenomena», the artist tries to reveal the true nature of our sensations.

In the images dedicated to the main religious actions in ancient Greece — the Greek mysteries, Anastasia is looking for a religious explanation of the Greek thought of that time. The knowledge that is under the watchful secret, protected by people for centuries, appeared to them in the sacrament in the form of a flaming fire! The idea of" peering «(into the fire) was the key in understanding the meaning of the mystery, comprehending its essence. Anastasia in her works explores the theme of peering, peering, visual search, where on the surface of the canvas there are only hints of images that the viewer independently explores.

Loktaeva’s painting technically represents the layering and subsequent special splitting of different layers of oil paint. Using various diluents, oils, aging, special drying, fading of paint and subsequent application of it to the surface, the artist achieves many interesting effects, highlights and reliefs.