„Sometimes, to survive, you have to shed your skin.“ SKINS is a multidisciplinary art project by Daröna (Daria Grechaninova) that uses the metaphor of shedding skin to explore emotional and physical healing after experiences of sexual trauma and emotional abuse. Inspired by the natural process through which reptiles like chameleons and geckos shed their skin, the project reimagines this biological act as a visceral response to reclaim one’s body and sense of self – a feeling familiar to many survivors of deep, personal violation.
In the aftermath of trauma, the body and mind can feel fractured, tainted, or unbearable – there is a profound urge to escape one’s own skin, to forget, to erase, to start again. This project becomes a visual and material metaphor for that desire: to shed the past, the pain, the shame, and the memories imprinted on both body and psyche.
The work includes two interconnected elements: a hand-stitched textile canvas and a tulle costume. The canvas not only symbolizes fragmented, traumatized memory but also features a painting that captures the raw, painful moment of transformation – the act of shedding skin as a way to survive. The tulle costume represents vulnerability, transition, and the attempt to reconnect with the body.
Together, they express stages of an inner „molting“ process – both physical and emotional – on the path toward selfacceptance and bodily autonomy.
Rooted in personal experience, psychological research, and cultural archetypes, SKINS positions art as a transformative space – where pain is witnessed, trauma is processed, and both body and identity can be reclaimed.