The Fire That Drank The Shadow – Deluxe Edition
The Fire That Drank The Shadow is an artbook by Julia Soboleva, published by The Mansion Press. Working across painting, collage, and found photographic imagery, Soboleva builds scenes that resist straightforward reading — faces fragmented, bodies displaced, tones that shift between restrained humour and something colder. The work draws on post-Soviet atmospheres and the pressure of inherited stories without resolving into documentary.
The Deluxe Edition
This Deluxe Edition extends the project with 90 exclusive pages and a variant cover not present in the standard release. The total page count reaches 408. Buyers considering both editions will find the comparison straightforward: The Fire That Drank The Shadow in its standard form covers the core body of work; the Deluxe Edition adds material that deepens the project's thematic and visual scope.
Visual and Thematic Content
Soboleva's mixed-media method places painting and collage directly onto found photographic imagery, producing surfaces that carry the weight of existing pictures while redirecting their meaning. The imagery moves through family traces, taboo details, and transgenerational trauma — territory handled through dark art methods rather than direct statement. Innocence appears alongside contamination. Softness sits next to threat. The tone stays controlled but never resolves into comfort. A related earlier work, In a Dark Time, the Eye Begins to See, offers further context for Soboleva's practice.
The Object
The production reflects the edition's intent as a kept object. The book is hardcover with cloth binding and hot gold stamping on the cover. A ribbon bookmark is sewn in. The interior is printed on Munken 150g paper, which supports the subtle colour and textural range of Soboleva's work. The format is 19 × 22 cm. It sits within the Artbooks & Artist Publications catalogue at Lokator100 as a considered object from an independent imprint.
Condition
Last blank page is bent at the lower fore-edge, with a diagonal crease and light wrinkling. Rear endpaper has a faint crease/scuff. Binding appears intact. Otherwise new and unread.
About the Artist
Julia Soboleva is a Latvia-born, UK-based mixed-media artist. Her practice centres on painting and collaging directly onto found photographic imagery, producing work that reflects on madness, reality, and the boundaries between them. Scenes are built with ominous tones and a restrained, often unsettling absurd humour.
Soboleva's work addresses family, taboo, and transgenerational trauma as recurring subjects. She earned an MA in Illustration at Manchester School of Art in 2018. Alongside her artistic practice, she works as an educator and freelance designer.
