Interview with puppet master, artist Margarita Dadykina

Family portrait photo with puppet composition 2021

Synopsis:

• Margarita Dadykina. She has been making dolls since 2015.
• Member of the Creative Union of Decorative and Applied Art Artists (author doll section)
• Member Relationship Chief, International Union of Puppeteers "Unidia" (Spain, Alicante)
• She works with polymer clays (both baked and self-cured) and has recently been active in the papier-mâché technique. She prefers statics and pays particular attention to the idea, philosophy and development of the character.
• Winner and laureate of numerous international and Russian competitions
• The author's works are in private collections all over the world (USA, UK, Spain, Switzerland, China, etc.)

DDN: Readers of the magazine are familiar with your work and the great sacrifice you have made in developing the Unidia project. The magazine has covered your work, but time has passed and we would like to hear an update. How do you see your place in the doll world today! What has changed? Have Puppets taken a back seat after your return to your main profession or have you found an additional resource for your creativity?

M.D.: Thank you for your interest, indeed, much has changed since then. Dolls are still my main joy and the most inspiring thing in life. My going to work has significantly reduced the amount of time I can dedicate to dolls, but I still spend every spare minute thinking about and solving the creative and technical challenges of future work. Puppet life has also started to get into gear lately. For example, we are preparing a joint project with my colleagues on "The Art of Puppetry" (I will not reveal the details yet), we have a very complicated task ahead of us. I just finished my work for an international competition yesterday, working on a protracted order for Joan of Arc (already my second in the making).

Napoleon. Work made on the author's course for demonstration to pupils. Living doll, 2021

The peasant woman who learned that the earth is round (Medieval Project), living doll, 2018

"Alzheimer's 2019, darwi roc

Cathy's Ghost (Wuthering Heights), 2019, ladoll

DDN: Every time we see a new work and the processes of its creation, questions arise about the connections of your puppet sculptures with history and literature. And if the works of 2019-2020 were emotional "metaphors" of love and sacrifice, the more recent works make us shudder at times. They show philosophical reflections on human vices and passions, denunciation of mores, deep feelings... Is this so? What do you associate it with?!

M.D.: I'm going to correct myself a little here, I've always had a soft spot for all sorts of human traits, misconceptions, moralising and philosophy. I've always loved books with meaning, challenging characters and stories, examples being my 2018 project, The Middle Ages, which included The Pied Piper of Hamelin and The Trial by Water (medieval torture) and inspired by Brueghel's Mad Greta, The Peasant Woman Who Discovered That the Earth Was Round and Joan of Arc. In 2019 there was "Alzheimer's or What's My Name...", "Ida Rubinstein as St Sebastian" for the DPI Artists Union project "Vivat, Artists" and work for the Perfume competition "Red Moscow" and "The Ghost of Cathy" from "Wuthering Heights". I always turn to gloomy or philosophical themes because they are important to me and seem very necessary, even if not everyone accepts them.

DDN: For any professional artist it is important to get feedback from the viewer, the admirer, the collector. Social networks, exhibitions, foreign sales platforms: what is your priority? Which events do you take part in and which ones do you refuse? Which methods of selling your work do you recognise and which do you consider unacceptable?

M.D.: Yes, feedback is very necessary and important. Certainly artists create "in the table" as well, as the process is similar to the need for water and food. Of course, colours are brighter and emotions are fuller when there is a response, a reaction, the eyes of the viewer. I really like the Art of Puppets exhibitions, Tishinka for the opportunity to communicate with colleagues and viewers, for the emotions that the guests give. Exhibitions that require sending a work to another city I rarely consider, unless the subject hits my heart so hard that it is impossible to resist. Life today teaches us to be content with little, so I always appreciate a like or comment on a social network. I try many variants both in terms of sales and display areas and if I sift out events where I see purely commercial interest and complete indifference to the author and his work. МAnd regular collectors are interested in new works. Many thanks to Irine and Ilona for the marketplace DaildollshopI haven't got the hang of it yet, but I plan to rectify the situation soon. 

"Queen", 2019, darwi roc

Undine, ladoll 2020

"Dreams of a young revolutionary girl" living doll, 2019

"Flower Fairy", living doll, 2020

DDN: Last year you gave master classes and started your teaching career. Do you intend to continue this or have you left it for a while to get back to your personal creative projects?

M.D.: In fact, as a teacher by training, I have taught a lot in my life, so the actual process of teaching and interacting with students was for me a great joy, an easy and natural process. But the so-called "promotion" proved to be the most resource-consuming activity for me. I had to make time for new work, for self-study. I won't make any guarantees, but today I am interested in other things and if something like this is going to happen, it will happen individually and on request.

DDN: What are family and relationships with your family and friends to you? If your relatives were to put the question "at a crossroads": either us or the dolls. Which would you choose? How do you manage to be a mother, a wife and an artist without sacrifice?

M.D.: A very difficult question. I hope that no such ultimatum will be put in front of me as it is impossible for me to choose. My family supports me and accepts me as I am and that is a great luck. Successful combination of several roles requires flexibility, which I am naturally lacking, but I am trying to develop it, at least for the sake of my family and relatives. The main thing is to learn to prioritise and not to stray from reality. My work helps me in this. There's something positive about my main job ... I have less time for dolls now and the "washed out eye" effect has disappeared. I look at my work "from the outside" more often. I am no longer in a hurry and this has a positive effect on my work, I pay more attention to detail.

DDN: What books, films and exhibitions would you recommend to our readers? What nourishes you as an artist today, makes you feel joyful and inspires you?

M.D.: About films and books, it's hard to choose one, I was very inspired by "The Shepherd". Now on the bookshelf are Bachmann, Dostoevsky, Galbraith and Pasturault's A History of Colour. I watch a lot of films, just yesterday a very warm feeling was left by The Scapegoat with Matthew Reese. I'm not inspired by modern films but by classics. "I can watch M. Forman's Amadeus endlessly. If I need to lift my spirits, a walk or a brisk walk on the treadmill are now my antidepressants.

Rigidity Ribs exhibition, ladoll, 2021

"Girl with Matches" living doll, 2022

"Bye-bye. Clinging tenderness" living doll, 2022

DDN: Traditional question: what are your plans for the future? What is currently in the works? Are you thinking of creating a revival project (on previous works for which there is a need for a remake)? Is there a need to create a solo exhibition? Do you have plans to do any other creative work?

M.D.: I mentioned that I finished a paper for an anonymous international competition yesterday, I'm really looking forward to showing it, but I'll have to be patient. About the Middle Ages project, I keep coming back to this subject. During the decades I have been fascinated by this epoch, it has become dear to me, I relax here. On the subject of remakes, I have a magical collector who has commissioned works that I've created in the past several times. I'm pretty sure she hasn't even seen those works. The amazing thing is that I have had the urge to do them again. This is the amazing convergence of thoughts. A solo exhibition is every craftsman's dream. You have to create a whole project for it. I don't have many works at the moment, and they are all diverse.

As for new... In the competition work, I used a new method for creating a doll for myself: taking the mould from a plasticine blank using machining. I liked both the process and the result. I think I will still be working in this technique.

We thank Margarita for her talk, her sincere answers to our readers' questions and wish her much success in her creative work!

Interview questions prepared by Irina Panfilenok.