Evy Jokhova seems like an artist who has everything under control. When we meet to discuss her new show Three Colours: Flesh unveiled on 21 March at 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, she casually mentions that she has almost finished installing another project – the largest one to date – for the 15th edition of the EDP Foundation New Artists Award at MAAT, opening just two weeks later. When I express my awe at her productivity she laughs and admits she has a soft spot for careful planning.

Three Colours: Flesh was drafted as early as 2020 as a part of a triadic exhibition project. The concept of this series was adopted by Jokhova from Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy – a nuanced cinematic inquiry into the subtle complexity of human emotions. Similar to Kieślowski’s films, each show in Jokhova’s cycle is marked by a certain colour that symbolizes a specific emotion and an aspect of human relationships.

The inaugural exhibition of the Three Colours series, Green, was presented in 2022 at 3+1 Arte Contemporânea. It engaged with the pressing issue of people and nature finding ways to coexist, while reflecting on collaboration, community, and mutual dependence. Six months later, Three Colours: Shadow, the second chapter of the project, opened at Galeria Municipal de Arte in Almada. Centred on grey – or a colour concealed in the absence of light – the exhibition evoked the intimacy and secrecy that shape private spaces. The title of the final phase of the trilogy, Three Colours: Flesh divulges its chosen palette: shades of red and pink addressing the bodily domain.

Evy Jokhova avoids straightforward interpretations of her subject, instead staging the encounter with flesh in a more more playfully. It happens in a sensual photographic close-up of plump, frozen fruits; a tiny image of a breast peeking out from a small-scale painting; an ironic photo-installation depicting a naked dog held by a naked young man; and deep burgundy glazes on ceramics shaped like carnivorous flowers. A large triptych titled Three Colours: Beastly, inspired by Islamic miniature painting, features an elegant ornament made up of cartoonish disembodied arms, eyes, and heads.

Jokhova’s visual language is captivating. Yet the longer I spend in the gallery, the more I find myself caught in an internal dialogue around the body and the gaze. A lavish armchair is set in front of Three Colours: Beastly, as if inviting a visitor to settle and lose themselves in observing a mesmerising, kaleidoscopic ornate image. Upon closer inspection, however, the pattern of body parts morphs into a blood bath, while delicate paint washes on the hand-dyed cotton come to resemble human viscera. The more I look around, the less certain I become. Isn’t the dog’s underbelly a little too exposed? Don’t the intricate crimson-to-pink ombré of the woven textiles appear tinted with something more corporeal than dye? Three Colours: Flesh reflects on where – and how – the boundaries of the bodily are drawn.

Jokhova always organises her exhibitions paying close attention to how the visitor would relate to the space and the artworks. In Three Colours: Flesh she skillfully guides the viewer by harnessing different volumes, shapes, media, and the red and pink accents rhythmically arranged within the space. Raised in cities and often on the move, from an early age Jokhova developed a lasting interest in how material landscapes shape human consciousness and emotion. “The objects are placed with a lot of thought – I bear in mind the body and how things flow, how the eyes can drift,” she explains her approach to installation. For Jokhova, however, designing a concise exhibition layout is not about pre-described narratives; it’s about mapping the multiple ways an audience might engage with the project – almost like constructing a theatrical set.

There is, in fact, a point when the exhibition space comes as close as possible to a literal performative setting. Each of Jokhova’s Three Colours exhibitions is accompanied by an artistic dinner held several times over the course of the show. At Three Colours: Flesh the dinner is staged at the artist’s largest work in the show – Avatar: The Way of Consumption – a massive ceramic installation in a form of a table garnished with tiles, expressive clay vessels, and figurines. Among these are small sculptures of snakes, a recurring motif in Jokhova’s practice. She is drawn to their ambiguity: symbols of sin and danger in the West, yet associated with wisdom and renewal in Eastern traditions. The snakes on the table look hungry.

The meal begins with an introduction by Jokhova and chef Francisca Paiva, who has collaborated with the artist on each dinner in the Three Colours series. Guests are invited to equip themselves with custom-made brass cutlery designed by artist and designer Sebastião Lobo. These objects – delicate, jewel-like tools worn directly on the fingers – act as prosthetic extensions of the body. By the end of the dinner, using them becomes second nature, as if the body had always known this hybrid form.

As the courses begin to arrive – mostly vegetarian, and all rendered in varying shades of red – the table becomes increasingly animated. Jokhova and Paiva serve the food themselves, placing it directly on the ceramic surface. The guests, equipped with their cutlery-hands, reach into the soft and smooth textures, spreading red juices and bits. The effect is somewhere between a banquet and a ritual, elegant and visceral. Within two courses, the table resembles a scene of refined carnage – part butcher’s block, part baroque feast – an aesthetic that would have delighted filmmakers like Ken Russell.

The artist herself withdraws soon after furnishing her audience with the unique dining tools. From that moment, the performance unfolds organically, driven by interactions between guests, myself included, as we exchange reflections on taste, tactility, and embodiment. In the end, Jokhova’s meticulous orchestration and careful planning enable precisely this sense of genuine creative freedom – transforming controlled structure into a spontaneous encounter.

Three Colours: Flesh by Evy Jokhova is on view at 3+1 Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon until 17 May, 2025. The performance referenced took place on 29 March. The last performance will be held on May 10 at 5:00 pm.