Olga Zaremba: Through nature

Last autumn, I arrived at AARK residency in Korpo. It was both my first visit to Finland and my first trip abroad during a full-scale war in Ukraine. My participation in the residency was made possible through the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies program, which is coordinated by HIAP (Helsinki International Artist Programme).

That time became an incredible opportunity to continue my work, meet new people and experience something new. During my stay, I initiated my ongoing series of artworks named "Through nature". This series is a combination of my life on Korpo Island, contact with the local nature and thoughts about the war.

Each work in the series "Through nature" is an allegory of hiding from reality, using anthropomorphism and escapism as a runaway from the fatal truth, and offers a reorientation of attention to problems from a safe place. The artist uses the impression of the locality as a world of safe illusions, through the mythology of which there is contact with her past and present experience. Anthropological objects have iconographic hints, some of the works have a repetitive character, reminiscent of a person's attempt to swim out of a funnel in a circle in order to save himself from complete disappearance in the dark. Thus, this story is like a secret letter from a person whose country and consciousness were occupied by an aggressive war and terrorism.

I returned to Korpo Island this spring and am extremely grateful for the amazing place that Renja Leino and Benkku Andersson have created. It is a place that brings artists from all over the world together and serves as a platform for exchanging ideas and creating art. Throughout my stay, I experimented with different techniques and media such as painting, graphics, photography, video, and sculpture. My first ceramic work was made possible thanks to the incredible ceramicist, Anna Nyreen, with whom I had the privilege to work with in her studio in Nagu.

When I return to Kiev, I plan to continue the work I started on Korpo Island and make a final exhibition.