Zima

Katerina Belkina

Photography - Archival pigment print

40 x 40 x 3,5 cm

These are the four seasons as symbols for four basic human needs that are connected to our instincts. As a nursing mother I was able to experience the influence of the instincts and the inner processes involved to the full extent. I felt stopped in my thoughts and actions — that is how great our dependence on the instincts is. The same applies to the hunting instincts of men. Spring and autumn are a pair of opposites, representing the two most important life functions: Give and Take — here in the representation of the nursing mother and the hunter. Summer and winter are the other pair. They mean play and reflection, as well as movement and rest, represented here by the child and the bullfinch. The first three needs, i.e. giving, taking, playing, are complexly linked to the instincts of the animal world and are expressed through the portraits of a woman, a child, and a man. Only the fourth need is not embodied here by man but is represented by a bird as a symbol of the human soul. We experience all four “seasons” in different periods of our life. At the correct time the previously mentioned needs come to the fore one after the other. Winter is the time of transition and the maintenance of strength. We plan anew and think about the past. Winter is silent. Nature urges us to contemplate and rethink. It is time to remain silent. In many traditions the bullfinch is a divine bird, for example in Japan, where this divinity is attributed to Buddha. In the Christian tradition we know of the bullfinch trying to pull the thorns out of the Saviour’s crown with its beak, while a drop of sacred blood falls on the bird’s chest. From that moment on the bullfinch breast became red-feathered. This association and image come from my childhood — seeing a bullfinch in winter was a magical miracle, because this amazing bird flies to us among the white silence and tranquillity of winter like the red winter sun, which brings good news: soon there will be life, soon there will be sun! Large size: 100 x 100 cm, Edition 8 Small size: 40 x 40 cm, Edition 8