I was born in Moscow 24 years ago. Since childhood, I loved to immerse myself in the world of fantasy and drawing. Creativity was my way of self-discovery, socialisation and therapy. Over time, drawing faded into the background, and photography took its place. 

I was sitting at a psychiatrist's appointment. I thought about death. I needed a stimulus to live, and the unconscious led me to photography.

It became my hobby, but one day in the library I saw a book by Joel-Peter Witkin with his transgressive piece of art and frank comments on them. Then I realised that I wanted to create my own work.  

Pleasure was a phenomenon that made my life less meaningless and unbearable. In this series, I explored my values because I doubted them. 

In the concept of ‘depressive hedonia,’ I saw a reflection of the ‘trap’ in which I found myself. In the project, this concept became a political layer that shed light on the scope and depth of the problems associated with pleasure and late capitalism. 

It seems to me that hedonism does not have a strong enough foundation to rely on it. 

Capitalism influences people through biopolitics. I like how the Spanish philosopher Paul B. Preciado writes about this in Pharmaco-pornographic Politics: Towards a New Gender Ecology: “The success of contemporary techno-science consists in transforming our depression into Prozac, our masculinity into testosterone, our erection into Viagra, our fertility/sterility into the pill, our AIDS into Tri-therapy without knowing which comes first; if depression or Prozac, if Viagra or an erection, if testosterone or masculinity, if the pill or maternity, if Tri-therapy or AIDS.” 

The ‘creepy’ element is the dark side of pleasure. Sooner or later, you get fed up with your favourite sweets and it becomes disgusting to you. 

In the photos, the doll ‘did’ everything I did behind the scenes. She had sweet dreams, plunged into sticky liquids and found herself in despair with a loop of marshmallows around her neck. 

In this series, I have sought to emphasise the unrealistic demands of late capitalism. That's why it consists of artificial objects. 

It has gained a lot of traction because many people have a difficult relationship with pleasure. After publications in magazines, people with alcohol and drug addictions and postpartum depression wrote to me saying that the project resonated with their feelings and experience. 

It is not necessary to chase pleasure and be always joyful and happy. All feelings are normal and interconnected. Pleasure does not exist without displeasure. 

I recently had a wisdom tooth removed. This event aroused my interest in the study of teeth and their role in human experience, in particular the experiences of pleasure and pain.