Self-deception
Ilya Martynov
Mixed media
2026
The sculpture ‘Self-Deception’ draws on the archetypal image of Pinocchio –
a character whose lies are traditionally revealed by his nose growing longer. In this interpretation, however, the mechanism of
distortion turns inwards. The nose is no longer directed outwards towards the
the outside world, but grows into the hero’s body, transforming the lie into an act of inner destruction and deformation.
The work explores self-deception not as a social act, but as an intimate
and self-contained process. The nose growing inwards becomes
a metaphor for psychological poisoning – a lie that finds no way out
and turns against the subject. The sculpture translates the moral category
into physical experience: here, untruth takes on an organic nature, akin
to a tumour, a foreign body or a root growing through the flesh.
This transforms the fairy-tale motif into an existential statement about the
nature of human consciousness.