The first solo exhibition by Bilyana Tokmakchieva, “All That Is Left,” explores the boundaries of the possible, the real, and the imagined. The artist invites the audience to step into the darkness of a world filled with organic forms inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, filled with a sense of antiquity, trauma, and inevitability. These “creatures”—or more accurately, their remains—exist in a cold, unstable space between dimensions and time. They are both dead and alive, evoking flesh, bodies, blood—beasts that inspire both horror and an unsettling intimacy.
At the heart of the exhibition are the red organic forms and the associative connections Tokmakchieva achieves through them. Their existence is contextual and multilayered, reflecting various socially-oriented explorations. The darkness surrounding the forms and the clean, almost sterile environment forces viewers to focus entirely on the bodies and come face to face with the remains of life.
On its primary level, the red entities, immersed in darkness, melting yet still, evoke extinct species or butchered animals. Tokmakchieva alternates between using dyed and undyed burlap sacks, amassing an array of both naturally brown-toned and bloodied carcasses for display.
Later, the material is shaped with wax, giving it density, sliminess, greasiness. The way the works are displayed recalls the production line in a meat factory or butcher shop. Preserved but also removed, placed at a distance, the remains take on a new existence - between the living and the dead, the real and the fictional. Waiting to be discovered, used, revived, or destroyed. The horror of formlessness provokes questions of order, sacrifice, and responsibility to life.
In a secondary layer, Tokmakchieva hints at a narrative about an extinct species, leaving its fate ambiguous. It is unclear whether these remnants are ancient, from a distant past, or a grim forewarning of a post-human future. Humans have the capacity to protect but also to destroy in their fear of the unknown. Perhaps upon encountering these creatures, we eradicated their entire kind—much like we have treated and continue to treat various cultures and civilizations. The speculative histories are vast, revealing truths about human fears and essence.
This unlocks the third layer of the exhibition. The naturalistic, decaying, traumatized, and dismembered objects speak of aggression. Tokmakchieva is deeply influenced by socio-political themes, particularly the devastation of war, which has grown increasingly brutal in modern times. The forms and their fleshy texture evoke the destruction that war leaves in its wake—not just physical but psychological. These grotesque remains speak of suffering, erasure of identity, and the stifling of humanity; the transformation of bodies into anonymous matter or mere pieces of meat. Beyond all this lies only the cold darkness.
With “All That Is Left,” Tokmakchieva examines precisely this—the remains of human intervention, whether in the past, present, or future. We place ancient bodies in museums, dismember the “unnecessary,” and cannot help but wonder what will remain after us. Does time transform an organic mass into an artifact? Where does humanity end and the anonymity of flesh begin? The artist asks questions without providing answers. Instead, the exhibition invites us to confront our urges, desires, and anxieties about the future.
