Proposal for an Ethnographic Book Project Illustrated with Original Watercolours
Picturing Postsocialism: A Visual Anthropology Study on the Renovation of Five-Storey Panel Homes in Moscow and Berlin.
Over the course of the year, and because of state initiatives to curb the global coronavirus pandemic, people across the world experienced being displaced, oftentimes in their own homes. While displacement has been a well-studied topic among social scientists, to date there has been little research for what it means when residents of a neighbourhood volunteer to become displaced. In 2017, and following municipal voting requiring a two-thirds majority, Moscow residents overwhelmingly supported the motion to demolish over five thousand panel apartment blocks without ever seeing their proposed future homes. In a transcultural research project focused on the renovation and demolition of panel homes in Moscow, Russia and Berlin, Germany, I propose to examine how the spaces of an apartment, a panel home, and a neighbourhood, planned as small units of a larger-scale socialist project, have come into conflict with postsocialist state policies, and how, in turn, state strategies can become shaped by grassroots initiatives.
Contents
Recent Watercolour Series: Closer to Home
From my earliest memories, well into my adult life, and across several countries, I lived in high-rise apartments. In my artwork, I wanted to capture the ambiguity of feeling at once intimately connected, and anonymous amongst one's neighbours. I came to KHMessen, an art residency in Norway, in the Spring of 2020 to investigate dwelling places as social entities. I was born in Moscow, in the former Soviet Union, and when I was still a child, my family migrated to France, and then Canada.
I decided to recreate every house in which I lived using watercolour paintings. I would create a collection culminating in a painting of my latest residence: KHMessen. Besides the watercolours, I wanted to make a multimedia collage based on the outlines of these homes - a kind of Frankenhome - which would then be laid onto a large canvas to create a cyanotype, an architectural blueprint. This blueprint would be combined with video projections, soundscapes, watercolour sketches, and relief prints. The theoretical concept for which I sought a visual metaphor was an image schema, a visual, linguistic, embodied, and historical pattern the mind conjures to give us an understanding of the world, and arguably, forms the basis for our identity. My proposal aimed to visualize how each person's unique history is intimately connected to their experience of lived places, and to other human beings.
To view a high-resolution slideshow, click on any image in the photo set.
Bookmaking
In approaching my current project, which proposes to incorporate original watercolour paintings into a published book, I recognized the value of presenting artwork in a professional manner. I have used handmade bookindinging techniques to create a portfolio based on my previous work: a trilogy of films, which I directed between 2009 an 2019. I created and printed all the text and images; hand-bound the books, and made the clamshell box to house them.
To view a high-resolution slideshow, click on any image in the photo set.
Exhibitions
My previous work has utilized multiple media including film and video, printmaking, bookbinding, and ceramics, and relied on programming, video mapping, and site-specific installations.
The solo exhibition below, presented with Charles Street Video at the Toronto Media Arts Centre (July 25-August 9, 2019), showcases my interactive multimedia installation, Still Life with a Suitcase. It is presented alongside a linoprint of imaginary maps based on four research sites: Moscow, Paris, Berlin and New York. The print was based on a digital composite created in OpenStreetMap and Mapbox Studio. It was then carved into linoleum and hand-printed on Japanese paper. I also created the wood lightbox that silhouetted the print.
Cine-Book Excerpt
In 2019, I conducted a pilot study for what it meant to "read" a cineamtic book. As part of a proof of concept, I assembled a rough cut of a possible page of the "cine-book", based on field recordings in Moscow, Russia. The excerpt details the life of one of the five brothers of the Gavrilov family active in the Russian Revolutionary movement, as told by his three surviving nieces.
Filmography
My filmography represents work created between 2009 and 2019, and includes trailers and excerpts from diverse projects, including feature-length films, short documentaries, and animation, as well as experimental and multimedia work.