The first picture is a girl with a bird drawn on her face and braids across her face in horizontal and vertical directions. The braids form the cage that traps the girl and the bird. The braids also have tiny little hairs that stick out. These little hairs look really uncomfortable and they are all over the girl’s face. The girl’s face and the bird can’t escape from the cage because they are immobile inside the braids and trapped by the array of hairs. It is like a double cage. The bird is also drawn right in the middle of the girl’s face and its tail on her nose and its head, body, and wings on her forehead. The braids run along the tips of the bird’s wings and its body, essentially trapping the bird from making any movement or trying to fly away. The braids also cover the girl’s lips which prevent her from talking. Interestingly, the girl’s eyes are open and clear. Her eyes contrast the predicament she is in. Her eyes are the only part of her that is free but her eyes can’t do anything to set herself free. Her eyes can only watch through the cage and draw the viewers in. She is like a caged bird that can only see the outside world and doesn’t have the ability to actually be in the outside world. It is a lonely feeling.

The second picture is a girl with her eyes downcast and thin arrays of hair covering her face like a waterfall. There is a symbol on her forehead (it is not a symbol I was familiar with). Her hair is thick at the right and left side of her face and it is thinner as the hair closes in in the center of her face. The hair covering her face is like a veil. The veil is hiding the girl’s face, but from what? The veil is also hiding the girl’s view, but from what?

The third picture is of a girl with her head to the side on her arms like she is sleeping. Unlike the other two pictures, her hair is not over her face and this gives us a clear view of her face. Her eyes are closed like she is in a slumber. On her forehead, there is the roman number for 12. On her left cheek, there is the roman number for 3. On her chin, there is a roman number for 6. On her right cheek, there is a roman number for 9. On her nose in the center of her face, there is an arrow going in a clockwise direction in a circular motion. The marks on her face are symbols that represent time. The symbols give the feeling that the passing of time is occurring on her face. However, it might also be the opposite because the symbols are cemented on her face. It can also mean that time is not passing. That time is something that humans made up.

After reading Photoglyphs and researching more about the artists, I finally have some understanding of the complexity of these three art pieces. The subject of all of the three art pieces is Rimma Gerlovina, one of the artists who created the pieces. These art pieces are used to demonstrate the psychological and visionary experiences of different situations. Basically, these art pieces go beyond logic and into the mental state of the mind.

The first picture is titled Bird. The description of the art piece is “Self-enclosed spirit, or beating against the bars of one’s own mental cage”. My analysis is similar in that the girl and the bird are trapped in a cage and that they have no freedom. The description of the piece makes me think deeper in that the girl and the bird are not just physically caged in, but also mentally caged in. The girl and the bird can’t escape from their own mind and there is no escape route. Instead of the lonely feeling I originally felt, it is now more of a chilling feeling. When one is physically trapped, it is one against another force. But when one is mentally trapped, it is one against oneself. It is a frightening thought of being trapped in oneself because as long as one is alive, one can never escape from one’s mental mind.

The second piece is called Real. The description of the piece is “… seems from behind our own veils. It is only when we wake from a dream that we know we have been dreaming”. The description matches my analysis in that her hair is like a veil. The title of this piece gives me the realization that the symbol on her forehead is REAL written in an abstract form. The REAL on her forehead gives a physical evidence that REAL is real because viewers can see REAL on her forehead. To tie it with the veil of hair, it can mean that reality is seen behind a veil (which can be taken figuratively as veil of thoughts or knowledge). This then brings up the question of realities and dreams. The description “only when we wake from a dream that we know we have been dreaming” demonstrates the blurry concept of reality. There is a thin line between reality and dream and one can only be sure that something is just a dream when one wakes up. The veil of hair also obscures the viewers from having a clear view of the subject’s face which adds to the muddled concept of reality.

The third and final piece is called Spiral Clock. The description states that ‘“It is believed by most that time passes; may be it stays where it is. Never was time it was not”’. The description of this piece matches my analysis in that time doesn’t actually pass. Many people believe that time passes by but maybe the reality is that it doesn’t. Time actually stands still as everything else around time passes by.