An area of some importance (2019)



Neighbouring sites


Developed during Digital artist residency and OffsiteProject google maps residency, in this project I explore my family's nomadic journey and settlement in southern Siberia and Kazakhstan in the 1947-1960s during the space race. Prior to this, they had spent 8 years in a Stalinist camp. After Stalin's death, without an option to legally settle back in western Ukraine, they were given a single option to work and live in southern and later northern Kazakhstan indirectly taken part in the terraforming projects of the USSR.

Through a family image archive, Google Maps (as a parallel between Sputnik launch from Baykonur in 1957), and oral history, I am exploring their experiences in those areas, considering the top-secret space race as a backdrop. Their knowledge consisted of a disjointed combination of rumours, speculation, and occasional sightings of machinery being transported to the site. It is possible that they directly contributed their labour to the infrastructure creation leading to the rocket tests at Baikonur Cosmodrome


60 x 40 cm (appr.)
Baryta archival paper
1/5 edition


 


LIS.TIMBER


60 x 40 cm (appr.) 
Baryta archival paper
1/5 edition




Distance - nature - barriers (2019)


60 x 40 cm (appr.)
Baryta archival paper
1/5 edition




People were here. Antropo(s)cenic sites as comfort.


60 x 40 cm (appr.)
Baryta archival paper
1/5 edition




Baykonur, Baikonyr, Baykonyr


60 x 40 cm (appr.)
Baryta archival paper
1/5 edition