Fluid Spaces of Belonging: Development

The project investigates the phenomenon of belonging and the illusion of what we habitually consider «ours.» We live in constant transition: homes fall apart, cities change, and nature resists. Everything that seems stable eventually loses its form.

The exhibition brings together sculpture, painting, and graphic art, structured as a journey from the external to the internal. The physical objects gradually become barriers that prevent the viewer from immediately seeing the central piece. This is part of the concept: to pass through layers of uncertain, unreliable spaces before approaching the stable space of love.

At the center of the exhibition is a work about love. In my artistic concept, love gives birth to a special space, independent of the fragility of the material world. I am not defining it literally or asserting it as absolute truth—what is important to me is to suggest that what we have loved does not vanish without a trace, but rather gathers itself in another inner space, one not subject to decay or time.

One of the hardest experiences for me was not being able to take my cat with me. He passed away while I was in another country. I couldn’t be there to witness that moment of loss, and that distance made the loss even more profound.

I created a sculpture of a sitting cat on a chest of drawers. It looks serene, almost stable, but the chest of drawers itself is heavily damaged—it has perforations and cracks.

The dresser is not as significant as the cat itself, but it becomes important as a vessel of fragility. The decay begins at the foundation, and there is a sense of inevitability in that—even what seems closest and «ours» remains a physical object, and therefore, subject to time and loss.

The next object that was left behind during the move was the flowers in the vase. It is not one specific flower, but a generalization of many flowers that I had to leave. Through this image, I am trying to convey the very situation of parting with them.

In this sculpture, the vase is broken, and roots are sprouting from its cracks. The flower remains alive and seemingly resilient, but this resilience is temporary. Without care, without presence, it will inevitably perish over time. The shattered vase here functions not merely as a form, but as a sign that life is sustained only for a limited time.

In addition to the sculptures, I create a series of paintings that continue the theme of transience and loss, but approach it in a different way. Where the objects in the sculptures still physically exist and gradually decompose, in the paintings they transform into voids.

In the work «Where the House Stood, ” which involves the swallow sculpture and the abandoned house, the landscape is meticulously rendered: mountains, trees, light, and space maintain their coherence and material presence. The house itself is absent—in its place is a white form devoid of imagery.

This contrast is fundamental to me. The world around continues to exist—dense and fully realized, as if impervious to decay. What wasn’t particularly valuable to me can be easily substituted with something familiar and understandable, and I don’t care how closely it matches reality. But the objects that were truly important to me cannot remain in memory in their original form—they turn into white holes within this world.