Polina Porras Sivolobova - from 'La Presentacion' series

Polina Porras Sivolobova

I was born in Moscow, Russia and raised in Mexico and The United States. In 2008, I received a Master in Fine Arts and Art and Design Education from Pratt Institute. My artwork is mostly autobiographical with intersecting themes of memory, longing, the body, psychology, mythology, and our relationship to the environment. In Las Tristes, Muertas y Dormidas, a body of work consisting of 270 drawings, video and performance, dealt with themes of psychology, violence and the murders of women in Juarez, Mexico. In the performance What Left and Yet Remains, I was blindfolded for three hours sewing a dress out of pieces of collaged fabric. In 2009, with a grant from the Queens Council on the Arts I produced my first short video documentary titled Mi Abuela, Моя Бабушка (My Grandmother, My Grandmother). In it, I explored my identity in conjunction to my grandmothers' culturally diverse lives and personalities. I have created puppets and performance art pieces for El Museo del Barrio, community-interactive performances for the Queens Museum of Art and the National Museum of the American Indian. I am the founder and artistic director of Avocado Pit Productions, an initiative that promotes cross-disciplinary experiences.