5000 Head
Spotted cows on lush pastures, cheerful farmers in straw hats, shiny tractors in oceans of crops, abundance of fresh, colorful produce – the idyllic picture that we gladly accept; at least that is the picture frequently found on packages of food we see everyday, in supermarkets; therefore, there is no other picture we are used to imagining when thinking about where our food could possibly be coming from. Through my work, I strive to invoke a reflection on our perception of agriculture in the form that is being propagandized by agricultural corporations, the form where the negative aspects of the industry are deliberately hidden away. The work questions our naiveté and ignorance towards understanding the scale and impact of modern industrial agriculture.
To what extent is it ethical to control nature in order to satisfy our needs and insatiable wants? On one side there is an astonishing technological progress and rapid evolution of the system, on the other – moral dilemmas, hazards, and true costs that are revealed later. My hope was to retain the duality in the attitude towards the subject of industrial agriculture in my artwork. The realism of high-resolution photographs is juxtaposed against the abstraction of the original setups, examining the conflict between artificiality of the bright-presented image of modern agriculture and its much darker facets that are carefully concealed.
My compositions are greatly influenced by the Russian Constructivists’ artworks and their promotion of a social role for artist; Constructivists preferred the technique of photomontage, arguing that pure abstraction was a limited language and that it was important to include the realistic images in order to communicate their principles. I build my assemblages in the studio using construction paper, printed photographs, and artificial lighting; the setups are made only to be photographed – I dismantle them immediately after the photograph was taken, and the resulting image stays the only remaining evidence of the short-lived creation.
Collections
Plastic Lunch. On-the-go lunches and quick sporadic purchases, when hunger or thirst overrides the common sense not to buy packaged foods, resulted in the new situation of plastic food packaging piling up in the office. One plastic bag of plastic objects a day. The bags kept piling up, finally becoming an unnerving installation, which eventually led to this project. Each photogram shows objects that were accumulated over one day period during the course of one month.
Illinois/One Percent
My interest in the meaning of surrounding landscape has evolved over the past three years when I moved to rural central Illinois from Moscow. I started contemplating my own relationship with the Illinois and how it influences my sense of self and being in the new environment. I learned that this land desperately needs preservation, and only a fraction of the original prairie is left intact. Most of the land has been converted to large corn and soy farms. This series of multiple-exposure images are the result of exploring and closely examining the forest and prairie preserves of central Illinois. Each exposure overlaps with tens of others made from another focal point over a certain period of time. Each photograph reveals the overall impression of the environment with its textures and gradual change of color and light experienced over time. The images seek to reference and expand upon the traditions of landscape art, from Russian romanticist paintings to the photographs of American secessionists.