One in four women in the United States alone have been victims of abuse in a relationship (Zwang, Ariel). The simple fact of abuse and escalation that can take against a partner are addressed in Tatiana Istomina’s exhibition, Philosophy of the Encounter. This paper provides a review of an exhibition on display in the Texas State Galleries, created in 2018 by Tatiana Istomina titled, Philosophy of the Encounter. The exhibition shows the trivialization of the death of someone who was not respected and could be more broadly interpreted as how we trivialize women’s contributions and rights in society, and how their abuse and even murder is talked about (or not talked about) which is shown both specifically though the work titled A Disinterested Gift, and through the exhibition as a whole. When you first enter the gallery, you are greeted by a wall label that describes the context of the works. That they are based on the murder of Helene Rytman, and have been created by Istomina, an artist who has a formal science education, and the ways in which her research-based art influenced the work so heavily. The set-up of the works guides you through the gallery. You are first greeted by her oil paintings. These paintings are hauntingly abstract and textural, yet some have notes that give specific yet meaningless context. The paintings themselves are difficult to figure out and have no visual or factual connection to the circles and labels Istomina has applied. When talking about A Disinterested Gift, one notices almost immediately that it is both a puppet, and how it was brutally disemboweled. There is ribbon that appears to be painted spilling out of a large incision in the stomach area. The fabric ribbons that spill out of the stomach flow across the surface of the white podium the puppets lifeless body rests on. The ribbons are painted a light dusty pink, almost white, and they have embroidery in painted thread which wraps around the edges in some areas. In other areas the paint seems to be flaking and dried up completely. The lines of the intestinal like ribbon draw one’s eye around the body itself, and the two areas of the sculpture almost start to feel separate, if it weren’t for the two ends of the ribbon emerging and reentering the stomach cavity. The work is divided between these two areas, thereby creating a contrast between the very dimensional body and the flatness of the ribbon. The body, which is puppet like and around the size of a small child, is made up of white, canvas-like material sewn together. The human form is genderless. The head, arms, and one leg are missing and only one leg is fully intact. The toes are chunky and are fingerlike in length and width. The body is arranged backwards in orientation so that the sculpture faces away from viewers, as if trying to hide the mortal wound it has suffered. The color is minimal and quiet. White and a light dusty pink are the only two colors used in the entirety of the work. But within the human form, the shadows created by the creases in the fabric produce dark lines throughout the work. There is some texture from the fabric itself and from the painted areas however the color itself creates no real emphasis other than on the spiraling ribbon like intestines which are light pink, and almost white. The piece is lit very dramatically, and the lighting pours of the form and emphasizes the wrinkles, and creases all over the human form. It also creates very tangled shadows that interact with the ribbon intestines that spill onto the white podium. However, this is just one work created by Istomina in this exhibition. This sculpture is surrounded in the gallery by paintings, other sculptures, and videos which fill the space with sound. The confusion one feels while viewing the paintings by Istomina mirrors the out of the blue, and nonsensical manner in which Rytman was murdered. She was killed by her husband Louis Althusser, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was able to walk free and continue to write. In fact he wrote a book titled The Future Lasts Forever, a memoir about his time spent in a mental hospital after his wife’s murder, detailing his madness from his point of view. As you walk from painting to painting you begin to encounter her sculptures and her video piece. Some larger sculptures are on podiums on the floor, as they are meant to be shown in the round and experienced from every angle. Philosophers Mind is a piece is made of the same material as A Disinterested Gift. It is a heavy fabric, possibly canvas, and has some embroidery, which is more detailed and patchwork like than A Disinterested Gift. It is also soft and plush and seemingly innocent, but it also shows something more graphic which contrasts with the material. Philosophers Mind is a plush recreation of the hips and genitalia of a man, presumably Louis given the title. This would also imply that his mind is nothing more than his genitals. The most haunting aspect of the exhibit, however, is the video that was created Istomina. The video in full is 45 minutes long, and shows both people, with their faces and bodies completely covered, and puppets. These puppets and the backgrounds behind them are extremely colorful, almost distractingly so. As if the color is meant to distract from the content and the actions being taken out in the video. According to the artist the video piece in particular is meant to show the brutal murder form Helene’s point of view, as everything else is seen from her husbands. The work created by Istomina was meant to represent the ways in which we trivialize women’s contributions and their struggles. The figure is headless in A Disinterested Gift, and has no arms to defend itself, and while it is shown in a gruesome scene, it is juxtaposed by the white and pink. It causes an almost passiveness between the content and the purely physical depiction. It is also made of a soft material, it is a puppet which is inherently childlike, and disregarded as serious. This distances the piece from human and makes the serious nature of the murder much less serious and allows viewers to completely disregard what had happened to this form. These formal qualities are mimicked in Philosophers Mind. The fabric and stuffing method, and the ways in which Istomina portrays a graphic image with a relatively mild form. The soft colors and the softness of the form itself hardly rings true of a murdered body, or of male genitalia. The work as a whole, triggers an emotional response because of the scenes being depicted (a disemboweled human being, disturbing audio playing behind a more disturbing puppet show) yet because of the mediums and the mild color palettes it feels as if we shouldn’t take the message or the scene seriously. It plays the violence and the graphic nature of the work off, as if it is not even happening. The work creates a feeling of disgust and sorrow for the horrible murder, and a sense of curiosity as to who this “person” is, why are they headless, and what has happened to them, as well as trying to establish connections between the case of Helene, the video, the paintings and the sculptures. This exhibition represents the passive ways in which we see women in our society. The ways in which the exhibition is laid out, to lead you to the video (which is meant to finally show something from Helene’s point of view) and the sculpture of a dead body (which one could assume would be Helene) last. You see the two pieces that talk about her murder more vividly and in detail last compared to everything else. The exhibit itself is trying to make something of her murder that honors her and details her trauma and pain, while still trying to make sense of the horrific and unexplainable tragedy she suffered. Some works even try to depict what she may have been thinking or feeling. This exhibit was also created by a woman, who is trying to tell the story of a forgotten woman who needs our attention and who never got it. This exhibition tells the story of a Helene Rytman, who was brutally murdered by her husband and who never got her story told. She is now being somewhat avenged and represented in the exhibit Philosophy of the Encounter, where Tatiana Istomina is telling her story, and even creating works that address Rytman’s murder from her point of view. This exhibition attempts to right the wrongs that occurred when Rytman was murdered and the man responsible faced almost no professional repercussions as a result. This exhibition will hopefully help women who are victims of violence to see that there are people who will believe their experience, and that they can come forward with their stories.