One of the aspects of the series shows the cultural symptoms of our society. This is an attempt to show her view on being a woman, on femininity, on the role of a woman, as well as analyse stereotypes connected to this and their representation in mass media, in visual and textual art, etc.

“Zhanna Gladko started this ever-extending series in 2011. An exercise on decoding and transcoding famous cultural icons this imagery suggests portraits of the Self rather than self-portraits. Produced at different times in different contexts the images play around the ambiguity of various cultural icons. By decoding and transcoding the artist renders them uncanny simulacra. Strange and alien they yet convey something very familiar. This familiarity makes the imagery vulnerable for it infuses even more aggression into the gaze of the viewer.

The captured, however, is a new creation that emerges in projecting a familiar character, narrative or iconic image through the prism of particular artistic criticality. Hence the images appear not as interpretations but rather a tool that makes an interpretation possible, a tool that is inciting force.

The artist prints the images on metal plates.
Due to their mirroring surface the plates reflect the confronting face of an intent viewer who may appear a part of this interplay between reflections and projections, between the Self and Image. This reflectivity of the plates suggests yet another possibility for remediation of the image, a strategy which the artist repeatedly deploy.”

From the curatorial text of Harutyun Alpetyan to the solo exhibition of Zhanna Gladko in Yerevan in 2016.