ELENA MASHKOVA. THE HORSE. AKHAL-TEKE

ARTIST STATMENT / MANIFESTO

"THE HORSE is part of my broader artistic practice CULTURAL STRATA.

For more than fifteen years, I have been engaged in a sustained investigation of the horse as a cultural form. My interest does not lie primarily in equestrian sport, breeding, or zoology, but in the unique relationship between humans and one of the most influential companions in our shared history.

Within my broader practice, CULTURAL STRATA, I approach the horse as a living intersection of time. Across centuries, ideas of beauty, character, discipline, freedom, endurance, responsibility, and human aspiration have been inscribed into its form. What interests me is not the past itself, but the way these accumulated layers remain active within the present.

The AKHAL-TEKE horse occupies a central position in this research. I see the breed not simply as a subject, but as one of the most concentrated examples of cultural continuity: a living form shaped through generations of observation, selection, knowledge, and aesthetic judgement. In its presence, historical time becomes tangible.

My work combines field research with archival investigation. I spend time at breeding farms, championships, sporting events, and traditional horse-breeding environments, observing horses throughout their lives — from birth to maturity — as well as the people who live and work alongside them. At the same time, I study historical sources, archaeology, visual culture, and the broader cultural histories that surround the horse.

The outcomes of this research take multiple forms: photography, drawing, painting, visual essays, and interdisciplinary projects. Part of the work also develops through independent research platforms dedicated to the AKHAL-TEKE horse and its place within culture. I consider these activities inseparable. They are different manifestations of the same practice: observing, collecting, connecting, and making visible the continuities that link past, present, and future.

I do not approach the horse as a symbol of a lost world. Instead, I see it as a living cultural form through which we can examine what societies choose to preserve, transform, transmit, or forget—and how those choices continue to shape human experience today"

Elena Mashkova

ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND METHOD

"My artistic practice is a visual archaeology of memory, driven by my proprietary interdisciplinary method, CULTURAL STRATA. I explore the phenomenon of timeless archetypes deeply embedded in our collective memory. My focus is directed toward objects and phenomena that represent the ultimate pinnacles of natural evolution, human cultural genius, and anthropology: the eternal silhouettes of tall ships, the sacred tectonics of Akhal-Teke horses, the primordial stealth of wild cats (snow leopards and manuls), the autonomy of nomadic peoples from the Nenets to the Mongols, and the primal archetype of human corporality explored through avant-garde pastel drawings and painting.

Utilizing radical visual techniques and working intently with light, scale, and texture, I strip these images of their documentary day-to-day context. My ultimate goal is to lay bare the very structure of time, demonstrating that these fundamental strata of history and biology are not left behind in the past, but continue to invisibly inhabit the here and now, sintering into the dense, monolithic cultural layer of our present"

Elena Mashkova

"For more than fifteen years, I have explored horses through photography, drawing, field observation, and historical research. Although much of my work focuses on the AKHAL-TEKE, the project is not about a single breed. Rather, it investigates the horse as a living intersection of nature, culture, memory, and human intention.

I follow horses throughout different stages of life and across different contexts: breeding farms, championships, equestrian sports, open landscapes, and everyday environments. What interests me is not biology alone, but character — how individuality becomes visible through movement, presence, and relationships.

Over time, this work has led me to broader questions. How does cultural knowledge survive across generations? What forms of human experience remain embedded within living beings? How do certain forms continue to carry meaning long after their original function has changed?

Through the image of the horse, I explore continuity, embodied memory, and what I call the dignity of form — the ability of certain forms to preserve and transmit human experience across timet"

Elena Mashkova