Mary Ponomareva

Mary Ponomareva is a visual artist, designer and researcher. In her work she combines  design, theory, cgi and 3d modelling in order to create worlds where the viewer is confronted with reality anew. She critically investigates the role of graphic design in what she calls a ‘New Dark Aesthetics’*: the influence of corporate imagery in the construction of dubious ideologies and their normalisation by way of their aesthetics. Design can either be complicit in the aestheticization of politics, but could also be used as a tool to lay bare the message of which the medium itself is the carrier, striving instead for a politicisation of aesthetics. In VR installations, texts and videos she builds dystopian landscapes where post-apocalyptic scenes are the setting for a narrative that blends science fiction with actual imagery from the defence industry and where simulation, fiction and reality are combined to show and question the incompatible characteristics of the current capitalist system. She studied at the Moscow University of Design and Technology, obtained her BA at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and completed her MA at the Sandberg’s Institute Design Department.