"The slope narrowed, forming a rocky crest that reached out like a long promontory into the marshes; they sparkled through the steamy haze. The noonday sky, now freed of its leafy veils, hung oppressively over us with its blinding darkness—yes, its blinding darkness, for there is no other way to describe it."

Terra Incognita—the unknown land. First coined by the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemaeus, the term evoked a vague yet profound fear of uncharted territories, where monsters were drawn onto the surface of lands that had yet to be unveiled before the advancement of navigation. Perhaps it was fear itself that kept one from stepping beneath the ‘blinding darkness’. Now, in an age where we entrust ourselves to the spinning vectors of GPS, the once-unknown lands have been fully documented, their surfaces reaching into the depths of space. Nevertheless, the unknown is not solely a domain of study in geography and astronomy. It resides within us, in the depths of the unconscious realm, from which myths are derived. That is why myths persist—and why they must persist. When blinding darkness descends upon an uncharted realm, the land within us dreams ceaselessly of awakening its own light.

Evgeniya Dudnikova works across painting, sculpture, and installation, intertwining realistic depictions of the regions she works in with mythological allegories, continually blurring the boundary between reality and fiction. The vast landscapes Dudnikova depicts—including the Andes Mountains, Aconcagua, and the Atacama Desert—evoke both her spirit of exploration and the environment in which she carries out her work in Chile. In time, the recurring presence of horses, star-shaped patterns, comets, and winged angels subtly summons the mythological motifs that are central to the artist’s exploration.