Empowering change through visual storytelling
Welcome to yulia_illustrates, the online portfolio of my Final Major Project for the MA in Illustration at Falmouth University, UK.
Inconvenient Women
The stories of female political prisoners in modern Russia
Today, an estimated 10,000 people are held as political prisoners in Russia. Nearly one in five political prisoners in Russia is a woman — the highest proportion in 14 years. This growing number reflects women's increasing involvement in political and social activism, and the harsh consequences they face.
This exhibition draws on their stories — transforming letters, diaries, and silent gestures into fragile yet defiant artworks. Through fabric, paper, and thread, it honours their resilience and the quiet power of resistance.
Richmond 2025. Trapped [mixed media, wire, collage]
Trapped reflects on the human cost of political repression and the quiet strength that endures in the darkest places.
Richmond 2025. After the Search [mixed media textile]
Richmond 2025. Fear and Suffering [textile collage, mixed media]
The smaller vessel embodies fear — its puckered fabric and fine stitched points suggest tension, breath held, and the instinct to shrink inward. The larger vessel represents suffering, wrapped in dark, frayed gauze and bound with raw red stitches recalling wounds and restraints. Beneath, muted flesh tones hint at the body within. Together, they speak to fear as a constant constriction and suffering as the heavy, enduring fabric of captivity.
Richmond 2025. Stolen Lives [textile collage, mixed media]
Five vertical strips of stitched fabric chart the stories of five women, arrested for their political resistance. Each strip begins with pale, delicate fabrics — fragments that mark the years of life before arrest. As the strips descend, the lighter tones give way to a sequence of darker tones, each piece representing a year of the sentence imposed.
Richmond 2025. The Light She Carried [mixed media textile and embroidery]
