Locaring
30 photos (varying dimensions) | 16 objects | 5 found objects | exhibition documentation (documentation is part of the project) | 2019-2021
“Locaring” — from Latin “locatio” — location, position and “ring” — a ropefenced area.
In the summer of 2019-2021, I lived a few weeks in a small town in Russia where my husband’s family lives. In the old house, from where the family history comes, I created a series of still lifes and self-portraits, working with the aesthetics of space and the culture of the place, retelling the history of the house.
In a number of absurd still lifes, I used objects preserved in the house, giving them a new meaning instead of the long lost one. I built compositions following the traditions of post-minimalist sculpture. Old dishes, electrical appliances and packaging evoke a feeling of recognition and nostalgia in the post-Soviet viewer. With standard production, scarcity of goods and lack of variety, most household items were the same for everyone. This inevitably gives still lifes new shades of meaning, depending on who is looking at them.
And then i tried to “try on the house” on herself, dressing up in clothes found in a closet and taking pictures in ridiculous poses that affirmed the presence of life in and around the house, but without defining the form and character of a particular time.
I also created several objects. This is the 70 years old house. Dividing layer by layer, I removed seven layers of wallpaper from the wall. It turned out that the wallpaper was updated once every ten years. Everyone who lived in this house died, I made objects in the form of photographs on tombstones.
