With her highly detailed, twisted drawings characterized by a stunning, dark charm Zigendemonic is definitely one of the most interesting artists of the Underground Art’s parallel universe.

Born in 1988 in Ukraine, Zigendemonic is currently based in Berlin.

Let’s have a chat with this extremely talented vampiress beauty.

Hi Zigendemonic and welcome to Visual Satiation!

Let’s start by introducing yourself, can you tell us a bit about you and your background?

I grew up in the post-soviet country.

From the very beginning, I received classical art education with a primary focus on the realistic painting and drawing.

But the confrontation with my art-teachers prompted me to renounce academism and to focus on completely opposite art movements like primitivism, naïve and especially – art brut (outsider art), citing it as the most honest, deep and exciting way to describe the world.

Isolated geographically and culturally in the pre-Internet era, I started actively seeking for my own personal style of self-expression.

What triggers your dark creativity, and where do those scenarios come from?

The main themes of my artworks are always physical or mental illnesses.

I always put my pain, personal drama as well as curiosity into drawings.

I create compositions spontaneously, repeatedly using my acute and intimate experiences as the starting point in the work.

I am concentrating on a specific emotion which possesses me completely. It could be neurosis, anxiety, obsessive and paranoid thoughts, phobias, somatic diseases.

Also, I have a high interest in the beauty of human anatomy.

It seems to me that Health is one of the important and inexhaustible topics as Life, Death and Love.

All people face it, but everyone experiences it in their own way.

How long have you been living in Berlin, and how’s the city treating you?

I’ve lived here for over two years.

Since the time when revolution and war started in Ukraine, and the feeling of “no future” became more clear than ever.

I never thought about leaving my home country before, so this is scary and sad.

I leave my apartment on rare occasion, trying not to do this without need.

I prefer spending time drawing and reading alone in my home studio.

For communication, I’m ok with just using the internet.

What do you and don’t you miss about your country?

I really missed my home country at first, because everything that surrounds me here is quite exotic and uncomfortable for me in many ways.

Even daily routine is bringing too much stress.

But I think there is no way back anymore. To find and holding a comfort zone is my goal for now.

Being calm, minimizing stress, keep drawing – this is all I need.

We all know that the advent of social media like Instagram has changed the way people interact with art. How have you personally adapted to this new landscape?

I really like that now we can see/share a lot of things without leaving the apartment!

Besides, I like that constant updating of my art-profile keeps me in good shape, helps to stay productive – I scan or photograph my artworks (I draw a lot and if I don’t do it right away I can just forget that these works exist) and I like to see the whole archive at once, to feel that the work is going on.

I’m even starting to wonder if people need real exhibitions?

We know you’re a book lover.

If you had to get rid of all of your books except for three (I know it sounds like a nightmare), which three would you keep?

I can very well imagine this terrible situation when you run out of the house with a small suitcase and a passport in complete obscurity.

I have one such book that I always carry in my hand luggage when I have to move from place to place, I’m very afraid of losing it, the book is about Art Brut.

If I had to take something else to keep my spirits up, I would choose books by Suehiro Maruo and Le Dernier Cri – the appearance of these books in my little collection meant a lot to me. Whereas literature that I always read in electronic form I’m not treating as something easy to lose, that you will never find again.

Suehiro Maruo, Shôjo Tsubaki: Chika Gentô Gekiga (The Camellia Girl, 1984)

What’s the weirdest thing that happened to you recently?

I’m very afraid of things that can be called weird. I wouldn’t want that to happen to me.

Lastly, let’s give you just a few minutes to draw a caricature of yourself and see how it goes!

I don’t draw caricatures.

I believe that there is no place for humour in my artworks.

I’d hate to find out that someone thinks my work is funny, it makes me sad.

Here’s a picture of her instead!

Thank you very much for your time Zigendemonic!

We wish you all the best!

website: www.zigendemonic.org

instagram: @zigendemonic

facebook: Zigendemonic

tumblr: zigendemonic.tumblr.com