Naked artist smashes sculpture of herself

/ Courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

A naked Ukrainian artist has smashed a sculpture of herself with a hammer at a U.K. art gallery, the British Daily Mail reports.

Maria Kulikovska, 27, was chosen as one of 30 artists for the first Anglo-Ukraine art competition at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

The competition aims to find the most imaginative and talented young artists from the two countries. More than 10,000 entries were received from 2,100 artists for the £75,000 prize.

At the show’s opening, Kulikovska smashed a green nude sculpture of herself while wearing nothing but sunglasses.

She said the performance mirrored her work “Homo Bulla” that pro-Russian separatists destroyed.

“It’s my response to the terrorists that I am the owner of my body and my life,” she said. “It is also a feminist stance; no one has the right to destroy images of women.”

She said Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine has influenced her work.

The competition announced the list of winners in each of the five categories -- installation, new media, painting, sculpture and street art-- on Nov. 23.

Sergiy Petlyuk, from Lviv in western Ukraine, won the grand prize of £20,000 for his video installation work.

Sergiy Petlyuk and his video installation work / Courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

Winners in the other categories were all awarded prizes of £10,000.

The work of the winning artists and the entire shortlist can be viewed at Saatchi Gallery’s website: www.saatchigallery.com/uk/raine