About artist

WELD QUEEN is a contemporary Russian artist, sculptor and performer.

The main media of Weld Queen is metal: with the help of welding the artist creates major interactive sculptures and large — scale metal installations (many of which are public art projects), they are focused on direct interaction with the viewer. Interactivity is a key feature of her work, acquiring its main idea only in direct cooperation with the person.

Art of Weld Queen is a material expression of the artist`s reflections on the evolution of her own worldview. Personal feelings and life experience in her works become specific instruments for understanding of the world and comprehension of human nature.

Weld Queen broadcasts the observation of her internal struggle and ways of achievement of personal harmony through own works. In present-days society where people exist in a state of constant stress, questions of personal space are an initial reference point of each person. Considering a problem of self-development from the position of the artistic analysis, Weld Queen solves it with the help of her own creative mythology.

The main direction of Weld Queen’s artistic interests is the problem of a person’s internal liberation: from a gender, age, the social status and other conventional definitions. On the one hand, human is inseparable from its social physical nature: each of us is given a body from birth with a pre-installed program “to be a woman” or “to be a man”, and our self-identification often completely merges with the contents of this program. On the other hand, the artist maintains the position that there is something much more than just an external physical or social game. Man feels the power that moves and directs him. Considering oneself as a unit of this power, as a potential, the person gets the ability to get out of the endless “game” and accept a position “ABOVE”. Being psychologically exempted from hardships of the level of social and physical interactions, the person can operate the surrounding reality more consciously.

The study of female`s own nature and gender is inherent in the works of Weld Queen, in European art is traditionally associated with the ideology of feminism and often involves the struggle for the rights and freedom of action. Weld Queen does not support the “feminist fight” as a phenomenon, but accepts it and seeks to find a way further – “the road after”. In the modern world, where people have already accepted that they can be women, men, undecideds and (in principle) anyone, there is no need to fight.

Through her personal experience, the artist shows that considering herself as something more than just a gender position, you can come to the understanding that social prejudices and stereotypes can not offend your inner “self”. Accepting your nature but coming out from the positions of a gender and becoming over them, you do not depend on the rules of a game accepted in the society any more: you receive ability to operate them consciously as they do not hurt you.

This philosophy is vital credo of the artist. The study of personal awareness and the ability to get out of the endless “universe of social games” give a person a new understanding of freedom. Trying to find the way to this freedom, Weld Queen broadcasts observations of changes in her own life through her works and shares the found observations with the world.

Stages:

Period 2015 – 2018 is called “the game” by Weld Queen manifesting the theory of “Post-Pessimism”. Creativity of this period mostly reflects the ways of “getting out of social games” from the position of irony, laugh and the effect of removal. Boldly intertwining fantasy, myths and real observations in the works Weld Queen exposes the absurdity and often frivolity of modern public values and regulations. The socio-ironic line is clearly evident in such works as “Boobs Dragon” (2017), “Cosmolover” (2017), “Casanova” (2016), “Fur coat” (2018), etc.

Laughter as a reception helps to see that within social games while a person takes his roles seriously, he is doomed to an endless struggle in which there is no winner. Post-Pessimism is the way out of social games by removing the marker of importance from them. A person gets the opportunity to distance from the “battlefield” through irony and playing outside to set the own rules.

From 2018 to 2019, a new focus of Weld Queen`s artistic interests is indicated. Now her works are concentrated mainly around the study of the own physical and female nature (and what exists “above her”), the development of the performative direction and the use of the body as the main media. The performances “Monarchy” (2018), “CALM DOWN” (2019), “Restricted Monarchy” (2019), etc. appear.

The main idea of the works of the new direction is the studying of the world through the observing of the internal states; and an attempt to overcome social patterns and search for special forms of physical and psychological practices that help to reach a new level of self-awareness.

Short biography:

Alexandra Weld Queen was born in Kislovodsk in 1985. Since 2008 she lives and works in Moscow. For several years she worked as a Director for development in the commercial and industrial sector. After moving to Moscow she became interested in working with metal and decided to completely change her profession. From 2010 to 2012 she received a professional education at the Moscow Polytechnic College specializing in welding technology. In 2015 she creates her first sculpture “Tikhvami” and after that works exclusively as an artist. From 2017-2018-studying in “Free workshops” at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA). Over the past few years Weld Queen has realized more than 20 sculptural projects including such large public art works as “Brothers” (2017) and “Petunets” (2016) in the Park “Kudykina Gora”, “Mother” (2019) in Zaryadye Park and Multipine (2018) in Moscow Botanic Garden.