Drozd’s optics are seeped in a murky sunless light andall that remains of the arch of the General Staff Building or the soaring space of Kazan Cathedral are contours and deep shadows. This hazy veil is the dust of archives, the ashes of empires and other debris and remnants of the cultural code of St. Petersburg. The destructive dissonance of the posthuman city, in which the stones are already becoming thinner and, following the people, are ready to sink forever into the dim light of Utopia, is replaced by a new glass architecture of quasi–organic forms which crystallize in the colorless squares andwalls.
The metaphor for this new quasi-existence are the tangle of pipes that fill almost the entire second floor of the Anna Nova. Their interweaving, similar to the innards of a space bug or the blood circulatory system of an Alien, is too foreign to the usual perception and promotes the adoption of "another dimension" of the crystal city. The tuneless whistle that is emitted from the ceiling further frustrates the optics.
Arsenii Shteiner, Artkhronika, 11 January, 2012
There is something new in the familiar views of winter Petersburg, something that is difficult to explain. Here and there one may catch a glimpse of something mysterious and unknown. In simple terms, outwardly Irina Drozd’s landscapes evoke an atmosphere of unexpected gravity; the solemn and majestically deserted city suddenly generates unknown crystal lattices. They grow by their own inner logic along the uneven walls. They shine and interlace, at once fascinating and threatening.
Unlike the usual views from postcards, Irina Drozd seeks to express another dimension of Petersburg — an ideal, timeless and supernaturalone. Crystallized Petersburg looks different, beyond time and space, without people and emotions, soaring slowly in empty space. Its dynamics and original structure are divinely beautiful crystalline constructions and only artists, poets and musicians can see them.
Dmitry Ozerkov, exhibition curator