Irina Tall (Novikova)’s photostory: Composing With Small Cutouts – A Collage


From small cutouts

A puzzle is formed

Like sea waves, one to another

Pieces float up…

Only my hands are still red

Dark scissors cut

My soul

To create

A small bird

On a large sheet of paper.


Blue, scarlet, transparent white

Lymph, blood and muscles

Anatomy of sadness

Of forgotten things and dreams,

I sit on a dark carpet

made of old dog hair pile

And it seems to me that the world

is spinning under my hands,

Like on a swing

From childhood, I write in the air

A few words

From many fragments,

Fall down on old slabs

forming a collage

Time flows down like arrows

Into the daytime.


I gave you a flower,

But its leaves withered.

I wanted to say the words I love,

But my lips were silent…

Dawn pierced the sea with arrows,

And the fish rose from the depths-

And when you saw tears in my eyes,

You understood that I love you-

Then I hugged and kissed

long dark hair,

To forget myself forever

in your thoughts.


They are all against you,

speaking in different voices.

Tied up, hobbled like a horse

And whisper in your ears

Trying to break your will-

But something, like another mind,

Looks at them

and without saying a word,

Catches the figures,

moving them from black to white,

from white to black.

It is impossible to track the move,

And they all fall,

Like toys

Into the abyss

where there is only death.


Irina Tall (Novikova) is an artist, graphic artist, illustrator. She graduated from the State Academy of Slavic Cultures with a degree in art, and also has a bachelor’s degree in design. The first personal exhibition “My soul is like a wild hawk” (2002) was held in the museum of Maxim Bagdanovich. In her works, she raises themes of ecology, in 2005 she devoted a series of works to the Chernobyl disaster, draws on anti-war topics. The first big series she drew was The Red Book, dedicated to rare and endangered species of animals and birds. Writes fairy tales and poems, illustrates short stories.  She draws various fantastic creatures: unicorns, animals with human faces, she especially likes the image of a man – a bird – Siren. In 2020, she took part in Poznań Art Week. Her work has been published in magazines: Gupsophila, Harpy Hybrid Review, Little Literary Living Room and others. In 2022, her short story was included in the collection “The 50 Best Short Stories”, and her poem was published in the collection of poetry “The wonders of winter”.

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