Jungle 

Tania Rivilis’s painting ‘Jungle’ presents a fascinating study of portraiture rendered in the dense foliage of what may be a houseplant. What does it mean to set these three young men within this artificial, yet overwhelming nature? The figure in the suit draws our eye, his race perhaps foregrounding questions of social class in contemporary Russia. Are we invited to read these figures as emerging from the undergrowth of post-Soviet society? Is this perhaps a statement on the position of young people in contemporary Russia? To interpret ‘Jungle’, we might look into the history of portraiture in Russia and the cultural meanings of the ‘jungle’ as a space of both danger and possibility. The study of Rivilis’s artistic training will undoubtedly shed light on the formal choices she made in creating this image. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.