How was the name K-Liée born?
I went on my first residency abroad — to Paris, to the international artists' residency Cité des Arts. It's a state institution founded under Charles de Gaulle by his colleagues. Madame Bruno was its permanent director for a very long time, much like Antonova was the permanent director of the Pushkin Museum — that is, it lasted for decades.
As I absorbed the scent of Western life and Western art, but drawing all my inspiration from within, as always, I heard and saw this pseudonym. It came to me unconsciously: I simply heard it, saw it, wrote it down, and the meaning and translation came much later. This name really does have a translation. It so happened that what I heard in Paris — inside, in my soul, in my head, in my heart — turned out to be a French word. So it wasn't by chance that it was born precisely in Paris.
What does K-Liée mean, and why that particular spelling?
K is the first letter of my real surname — I'm Kuleshova. But the world of art is a parallel world; it has nothing to do with everyday life, which is why I write my creative name with a hyphen. As a result, two worlds merge within me: the everyday feminine world and the creative, divine world. K — from Kuleshova — and after the hyphen, Liée.
It's a French word. In French, as in Russian, as in Spanish, there is gender — masculine and feminine. I heard Liée inside myself and wrote it down just like that, even though I don't speak French. Later, around 2022, I happened to meet a Frenchman in Moscow, a teacher of French for Russians, and he said: 'I understand — Liée means connected.' Essentially, that fully reflects my inner content. All my art comes from the realm of the cosmos, from the unconscious, the unknown, and this connectedness with the otherworldly, the unconscious, the cosmic, the inner, the esoteric — that's exactly what this word answers to: being in touch, being a contactee, a stalker. Liée is a French word, and for the last three years I've been writing it with the -ée ending, because that's the correct spelling for the feminine gender.
Was there a moment of transition from Svetlana to K-Liée?
Yes, there was. In 2024 I registered my brand K-Liée and decided to consciously move away from the name Svetlana completely. This is not only an expression of my inner world, but also the building of a world on this side of things — the release of everyday products, clothing, tableware, household items. All of it is built on my creative work, but in essence it's already industrial production.
How has your perception of creativity changed with the new name?
With the emergence of the brand, I started thinking more about releasing products that would actually sell. And the path to being sellable is about what people like. You can't fool the public. It's like the hit of millions, 'Scarlet Roses' by Alla Borisovna Pugacheva, back in my youth — everyone loved it. There's some universal truth, universal things that are beautiful to everyone; it's not some exclusive, incomprehensible, distant art. Take 'Jesus Christ Superstar' — there are ideas that are pleasant and appealing to everyone.
So with the arrival of branding, I started thinking more about the end consumer too — making sure things weren't some kind of overly intellectual stuff, far removed from reality, but that they contained something that unites people. What's beautiful is beautiful, just like in cooking: what's delicious is delicious. About ninety percent of people love 'Bird's Milk' cake, about ninety percent love Olivier salad — and that doesn't mean they're deliberately trying to please someone, it's simply a universal product. The whole K-Liée brand is built on my creative work, on my vision, but for mass products I choose the pieces that appeal to the majority.
Do you use different names for different areas of your work?
Products made as one-offs — unique, singular, exclusive art pieces — that's what I've created my whole life. But K-Liée as a brand only produces what appeals to the majority of consumers. There's no distance here between consumer and producer.
How do people react to the name in different countries?
In England, before I started writing the name correctly, with the -ée ending, people kept calling me Kay-Lie — and 'lie' in English means, well, a lie. That really irritated me: despite the apostrophe, no one read the name the way it was meant to be read. But ever since I started writing it correctly, in the feminine form, that problem disappeared. I think of it as my name, and people, as an extension of that, perceive it the same way — as the norm. It's an original creative, artistic name.
Do you advise young artists to take a pseudonym?
I know that in Russia maybe ninety percent, or a bit less, of contemporary young artists work under pseudonyms — partly so as to be more memorable, to appeal more to the public, so that the name sounds right and matches the content.
I think everyone has the right to do as they see fit. Essentially, it's not the pseudonym that makes the artist. But if a person feels that a pseudonym better reflects their essence — why not? As in my case: from the start I was heading toward becoming an international artist, and I wanted the name to reflect the depth and concentration of who I am. That's partly why I changed my name.
Are there works signed with something other than K-Liée?
Yes. I started working in art under my maiden name, then got married and began signing with my husband's surname — Kuleshova. In 2006 I took a pseudonym and started signing all my works only with it, because from the beginning I wanted to separate my everyday life from my life as an artist. All the works are a product of me as an artist, so there's only K-Liée on them.
Do you plan to always remain K-Liée?
Honestly, yes, I'm completely happy with it. I did this once, and I see no reason to change anything. Everything suits me just fine.