Anya Palamartschuk

Into the Garden

Artwork 1 Details :

“In a period of isolation, it can be difficult to sit with oneself. Your demons become inescapable. This project is about sitting with those characters, and relinquishing their power over you.” My work collages videos from the last two years as I spent time walking in nature, watching the seasons change. For me, it was a time of major reflection and I found myself writing as I spent more time in isolation. The poems and stories from my processing mind were tied to the steps that I took. When I visited the garden, the Jardín Botánico de la Universidad de Valencia, I imagined that people found themselves here when they had something on their mind. The garden embodies a metaphorical purgatory for that dissociative state as you walk and heal. In a dreamlike landscape of psychological col-de-sacs and pathways, this video tells the story of characters who go on these journeys. They can only ‘leave’ the metaphorical garden if they find some reconciliation. As a projection, the maze of kaleidoscoping images abstracts the boundaries between digital and physical space, inviting the audience to explore the garden themselves and let their own journeys form.

Bodies of Light

Artwork 2 Details :

In my piece ‘Bodies of Light,’ large swathes of wax and fabric screens are used to create an immersive projection space. I want to experiment with new materials to innovate ways of making projection screens that reference the body. In using these materials on a large-scale, I can fully explore ideas about gender dysphoria, euphoria and social masks. Formed in water, the microcrystalline wax will be the backdrop for the projected film showing water doors and ethereal worlds of water. Wax is a sustainable material that moves in cycles, just like water, just like our bodies or the seasons. This film creates an immersive other-worldly exploration for audiences to connect, ponder and reflect about the body, nature and identity.

Walking in Space

Artwork 3 Details :

This video shows a subject walking all around the screen, interacting with other versions of themselves whilst moving in many different directions. This piece experiments with the idea of contained space with regular movement and uses editing to question certain boundaries and manipulate space. Projecting this video around my room during lockdown , it emphasised the repetitive and sometimes claustrophobic nature of being in one space. On the other hand, as a projection, the regular constraints of a screen are removed and the subject can freely wonder through space without barriers. This potentially creates a juxtaposition, of being trapped to one area, but walking without dimensions.