Aidan Salakhova, known as Aidan, is interested in the often contradictory meanings around cultural and religious symbols which she deconstructs in her sculptures, paintings, photographs and videos. Her dual heritage as Azeri and Russian is reflected in these works which maintain an exquisite tension between the sacred and profane, ancient and modern, oriental and western. Aidan came to prominence amid the collapse of the USSR and gained a reputation for her provocative use of explicit imagery and breaching of taboos. Aidan challenges centuries of female subjugation and objectification in her bold celebrations of the feminine. For the past decade, she has explored the multifaceted nature of the veil: portrayed in sensual, sleek marble and granite, it is equally a symbol of religious oppression and an enabler of female erotic pleasure. Her recent sculptures in Carrara marble demonstrate a shift towards harmony of the sexes, embracing the male and female nude.