This artwork is inspired by the concept of the tree of life, one of the world’s basic cosmogonical ideas. In this case, it consists of the images of Komi mythology and reflects the trinity of the world in the form of three parts of the tree: the crown, trunk, and roots.
According to ancient Komi legends, the Upper World was home to Yen the Demiurge, the Underworld belonged to his brother and rival — the evil Omel, and the Middle World was occupied by people who had been created by the brothers together. Before the adoption of Christianity, there was no division into heaven and hell in the afterlife. A soul could ascend to heaven with birds, go underground, or remain where the person had died.
The tree of life is featured in the mythological traditions of most peoples, including Scandinavians, Karelians, Balts, Iranians, as well as Asian and Turkic peoples. It is also mentioned in the Bible, the Kabbalah, and the Quran. In Slavic culture, the motif of the oak as the world tree is present in fairy tales, carols, riddles, and legends, having not only spatial but also temporal characteristics. The tree of life can be found in the national patterns, carvings, and paintings of different cultures.
Each level of the tree of life corresponds to certain living beings. The roots are home to chthonic deities and demonic creatures, including snakes, lizards, fish, and dragons. The Middle World is inhabited by demigods and divine animals such as horses, moose, and bears. The Upper World is reserved for birds.
In her work, the artist Svetlana Tot uses motifs of the Perm animal style, a movement in applied arts and manufacturing of cult objects. Here, the Middle World is modeled after the openwork metal badge created in the 5th–6th centuries and stored in the collection of Perm State University. The badge depicts a rider surrounded by animals, birds, and moose heads. Other sources of inspiration included an idol shaped like a person with bird’s wings, underground lizards, and a three-headed bear.
Images of people and animals are hidden in the magnificent crown of the tree, while the faces of celestial beings are in the corners, and a bird sits at the top. Perhaps, this is the sacred bird Turul, a Hungarian totem and messenger of the gods. The Perm peoples also considered a bird to be the mother of the gods and a guide to the other world, while in Slavic legends, birds symbolized illness and death.
In this artwork, the World Tree is symmetrical. The central axis is formed by the trunk featuring a human figure. Traditionally, the branches of the World Tree also featured the Houses of the Sun and the Moon, but the artist decided to depict them in separate works which are also housed in the National Gallery of the Komi Republic.
