Kolobok

(folk fairytale known in english-speaking countries as "The Gingerbread Man")
concertina book folded in spiral (23x23cm square page unfolds
to 79x79cm map); pen, ink, 2004
calligraphy by Diana Misaryan
folk text adapted by Alexei Tolstoy.

Kolobok cover
Kolobok fairytale (face spread)
kolobok fairytale (back)
Kolobok's phases (the massive star life cycle)
Stage 1: Kolobok is conceived by Grandmother (night, gravid vacuum) and Grandfather (the Big Bang)
stage 3
Stage 6: The World Tree growing through the Pot
the Fox
backcover (Kolobok's section)

My interpretation combines the mythological roots of the fairytale
in the solar and cosmogonical myth as well as astrophysical data on life cycle of massive stars from a cloud of space dust to the black hole.
A model of a cyclical universe.

a-side – the map of the universe. Kolobok travels the spiral as the book unfolds. Finally he collapses into himself forming a black hole and
a supernova.
b-side – book cover, the phases and the anatomy of Kolobok – the super massive star, and characters’ portraits as celestial bodies and space objects.