Pandemic time, 2020.

The six works combined by Evgeniya Maltseva in a project called "Pandemic, 2020" do not tell about the epidemic of a deadly disease. The pandemic is only an excuse here, a fulcrum, when, despite the death that has penetrated into everyday life, time stops, the husk of everyday life flies around, and the artist finds himself alone with an unknown world that is born inside him out of emptiness.

On a light abstract background, among the color spots, shadows and light strokes, extremely distinct images of people, animals, plants appear. The main character is a dog. Drawn in detail, almost alive, it seemed to squeeze into the conventional plane of the picture from somewhere outside ("Reflection"). Emphasized physiology – muscles, tendons, fur, claws, teeth. The paws are smeared with paint, a cross hovering in the air hangs next to the ear. Instead of hind legs, human legs sprout...

Each painting has two dimensions, two hypostases, each has a dark and light side: a consequence of the use of fluorescent gouache. The lights turn off, and like an echo coming from hospitals filled with patients, darkness appears, illuminated by ultraviolet light. Outlines are erased, details disappear, a contrast hidden in the light becomes noticeable – the contrast between the blue glow of dead paint and a live dog's tongue filled with blood.

Everything is imbued with duality, filled with reflections. The conditional and the concrete, the dead and the living, the human and the animal penetrate into each other, merging into an endless cycle. A person is reflected in a dog, a dog becomes humanized, becomes infected with "culture", turning into a divine savior descending to a person from his canine paradise – blissful ignorance, in which time, death and extinction are only an imaginary value imposed by someone ("Grace").

But the man is sleeping and is unable to accept what the dog is trying to convey to him. His dreams are turned to the past and the future, he knows that he is mortal, that life is an endless drama that draws into itself everything that is dear to him. The culmination comes. There is a perspective, there is dynamics, tension, speed, rhythm. The painting called "The Goal" is even stylistically different from previous works. A kind, peaceful dog finally falls into the space of myth, turning into a three-headed Cerberus that guards the border between worlds. A person is bifurcated, becomes conditional, half dead, half alive. The ancient plot turns upside down – Cerberus does not let a person into the world of the dead, merges with the human body, absorbing death and darkness... And now we have a dead dog in front of us, and next to it is a living human leg filled with strength and energy. The wall is splattered with blue glowing paint, reminiscent of ultraviolet- illuminated blood. The same color and teeth of a dog that took on human death ("Cerberus").

The final work of the cycle is called "Shame", and unlike other canvases of "Pandemic", there is no second side, created with the help of fluorescent gouache. The darkness highlighting contrasts is placed inside the painting. The light background breaks, forming a black geometric dip in the depth. Two male figures walk in opposite directions from each other. The one that goes into the darkness is more conventional, half-erased, devoid of details. The other, facing the viewer, is as textured, tense, lively as possible. The face is distorted by a grimace, in which disgust, shame and insane fear collide with extreme expression. In the foreground is the same dog. Lying on her back, she invitingly spread her paws, showing her genitals – a source of pleasure, a source of life. The shameful frankness of nature that lives inside each of us. The defenselessly relaxed, full of pleasure pose of the dog contrasts with the figure disappearing into the darkness and the tense body of a man who is convulsing, running away from a black hole. Part of the leg is submerged in blackness or even eaten by blackness, which sucks it in despite the escape attempt...

A triangular composition in which man is trapped – nature, death and the constant desire to escape from death. And nothing so clearly conveys his position as art, which not only allows you to see yourself in another world invented by someone, but also in itself is a strange existence of the human spirit "on the other side"....

The white surface of the empty canvas, familiar from childhood, is distorted, goes in waves, letting in the figures of animals, plants, people. The dead becomes a reflection of the living, and an amazing animal, a dog tamed millennia ago, looks at us from the paintings of Evgeniya Maltseva with its intelligent eyes, turning into a wonderful mirror into which a person looks, trying to find himself...