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CONTENTS 3 4 5 13
ART RESIDENCY RUDA Project 12 Hour Shift (graphic series) 12 Hour Shift (short film) Red Hounds
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FILM PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT Behind The Window Waxing Moon Condensed web series
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GIFS & ULTRASHORTS Le cauchemar Bananabird Gifs
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EXHIBITIONS Resort Boys By Girls XUIANH Sisters
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CYCLING RELATED Velo New Year Cycling illustrations
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OTHER Change Of Plans - short story Other drawings
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RUDA PROJECT
I took part in the RUDA Project art residency in Kryvyi Rih city, Ukraine, where I spent 12 days with 5 other artists. Kryvyi Rih is an industrial city, built by the largest iron ore deposits in Ukraine. Its ore mines supply the largest iron factory in the country, which exports construction steel worldwide. Almost the entire population of the city works in metallurgy. The theme of the residency was ‘Industrial Aesthetics’. During the residency we visited the quarries and the factories, where we explored the full process of steel production, and the life of people who inhabit the city. Then each of us made an individual art project inspired by the experience. 4
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12 HOUR SHIFT graphic art series There is a widespread opinion that the work of metallurgists is devoid of any joy, and Kryvyi Rih is a gray and monotonous city inhabited by gloomy and exhausted factory workers. The ‘12 Hour Shift’ project is designed to refute this superficial impression, and show that people who work twelve-hour shifts at the steel plant are confident professionals who live a fun fulfilling life. They are excited about their work, knowing that they play a big role in the development of humankind. At first I created an art project consisting of 12 drawings, which tell the story of a typical workday at the steel factory. Then I created a short film based on those drawings. The title refers to the fact, that the duration of a work shift at the Kryvyi Rih steel plant is in fact 12 hours. It is very impressive, considering how difficult and dangerous the job is. I tried doing 12-hour shifts while animating this film, which was not easy, although my job was far from being as heavy and dangerous as ferrous metallurgy. The aesthetics of both the drawings and the film present black metallurgy as a magical phenomenon, while the smooth jazz soundtrack creates a pleasant mood and emphasizes the flow and coherence of the various shops of the plant.
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12 HOUR SHIFT short film A dream-like animated ‘documentary’ about a typical workday at the steel plant – the place where clouds are born and fiery magic goes on. As we follow the workers, we discover the full process of steelmaking. Duration: 2’00 ”
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12 HOUR SHIFT Plot: Before the shift, the factory worker exercises to activate his body. After exercising, he puts on his helmet, and smokes a cigarette to activate his mind. He is immediately immersed into the workflow. As two coke chemists are leaning over their oven, coal becomes coke. The oven turns into a railway – fresh coke is being transported to the cooling chamber. This process is supervised by a beautiful and feminine machine operator. She represents the women of black metallurgy. In the process of cooling, steam is released – the famous thick clouds of Kryvyi Rih are born. We’re readyto fire up the blast furnace. The next worker peeks out of the cloud of steam – he pours agglomerate into the blast furnace. Light is shed on the cast house of the blast furnace, where a furnace worker takes a sample of fresh cast iron. He tells his colleagues a funny joke; it is rumored that furnace workers are the funniest guys at the factory. Encouraged by laughter, he pours cast iron, which flows, flows, and falls into a tub of molten steel ‘borsch’ in the shop of continuous casting. The steel ‘borsch’ flies over some pleasantly tired metallurgists, who are in a hurry for a well-deserved lunch break. Today’s lunch is red borsch (traditional Ukrainian dish), as red as hot Ukrainian steel. The metallurgist raises a spoonful of borsch to his mouth, swallows it, it floods his body with hot nutritious goodness, and transforms into hot steel billets flowing along a conveyor line. A worker of the continuous casting shop emerges and cuts up rivers of hot steel into blooms. The steel is ready for rolling and becoming part of a structure. The rivers of molten steel transform into steaming chimneys, which turn into the last cigarette lit by the tired metallurgist at the end of his shift. The shift is over. Satisfied with his productive and important work, the metallurgist goes to sleep. He sees a dream about red dogs and the eternal fire over his steel plant, which indicates the ceaselessness of the steel manufacturing process. While one metallurgist is dreaming about red dogs, his colleague is already preparing for his 12 hour shift.
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12 HOUR SHIFT 2/5
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12 HOUR SHIFT 3/5
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12 HOUR SHIFT 4/5
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12 HOUR SHIFT 5/5
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12 HOUR SHIFT photos of the ironworks This is a series of photos I took when visiting the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Kryvyi Rih. They provide an explanation of the visuals for my ‘12 Hour Shift’ film.
coke oven: coke production 12
blast furnace: cast iron production
continuous casting of steel billets
12 HOUR SHIFT photos of the ironworks
cooling of fresh coke: steam
transportation and cooling of fresh coke
chimney with the Ukrainian coat of arms 13
RED HOUNDS As soon as I heard that there are red dogs in Kryvyi Rih, I decided to find out whether it’s true. The theory is that when it rains, the oxidized ore dust paints the puddles red, then dogs bathe in those puddles and that’s how their fur becomes red. I explored obscure parts of the city, iron plants, quarries, and ore mines, but I only found regular dull brown strays. My last day in the residency, I decided to give it one last shot and ride my bike to a spot I found on the map, which looked like a red lake. The destination was 25 km away, it was snowing and I had very little time before I had to display my project at our residency group exhibition. It seemed as if everything was against me: 10 km of ice-cold headwind, then another 10 km of crazy drivers, collision with whom I avoided by mere luck. Just a few km away from the red lake, concerned by the lack of road safety, I decided to return to the residency and give up on my idea of finding legendary dogs. As soon as I made that decision — there it was. A real bright rusty-red dog. Since that day, all the dogs I draw are red.
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12 Hour Shift
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BEHIND THE WINDOW
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BEHIND THE WINDOW 1/5
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BEHIND THE WINDOW 2/5
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BEHIND THE WINDOW 3/5
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BEHIND THE WINDOW 4/5
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BEHIND THE WINDOW 5/5
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WAXING MOON
I once angered a man, who turned out to be an evil wizard. I never believed in black magic, but the events that followed, made me reconsider. I was so impressed by this incident, that I decided to make an animated short loosely based on the experience, so I started researching slavic magic. I realized that I’d been blind to a big chunk of Ukrainian culture and traditions — folk magic, with its peculiar beliefs and rituals. My research and the script are in progress, until then I want to share some of the drawings I have in mind for the visuals of this film. 22
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WAXING MOON
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CONDENSED web series
I plan to create a web series about anything and everything. A significant or minor topic condensed into 1 minute long square monochromatic episodes with monologue or dialogue. Kind of like a surrealist animated diary, a platform for personal experimentation. No strong for or against, just a neutral minimalistic approach. Everything is ultra-condensed. Each episode could end in the beginning scene of the next episode, like a sudden transition in a dream. The idea is that I can later combine a number of episodes into one dream-like short film. I plan to do the voiceover in English with Ukrainian subtitles worked into the design as you see on the images on this page. The list of topics for future episodes includes: marriage and loneliness, dogs, corruption, climate change, Eurovision, ultra-endurance, water pollution, fear and authority, etc. The pilot is about people, who lift weights and their motivation. As part of my research, I started weight training for the first time in my life. I haven’t finished producing the episode yet, but I sure strengthened my upper body and learned how to do a chin-up! 24
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CONDENSED web series: HEAVY HEAD
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LE CAUCHEMAR Ultrashort Duration: 29” An ultra-short horror film about the dreadful panic of suddenly being burned alive.
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BANANABIRD Ultrashort Duration: 25” When you cycle up the tallest mountain... only to realize, that you’ve run out of power and forgot to bring your food... But then the magical Bananabird emerges out of nowhere, giving you so much energy, that you fly into the sky like a rocket.
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GIFS Furunculus Homunculus
Common Kitchen
Rainbow Dancer
Introvert
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GIFS Hurry
Meow
Diving for Crabs
Witch
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RESORT EXHIBITION After a strange and turbulent winter, spring arrived. The Sun smiled, awakening the trees from their lengthy slumber. I started fantasizing about the hot sand and salty air of a seaside resort, but all I could have is a rare illegal solitary walk in the woods – it was worldwide quarantine. No chance of going to the beach, or at least to the cinema or an art gallery. Beach fantasies wouldn’t leave my exhausted mind, so I decided to act on them and started painting. This is how RESORT, the lockdown exhibition came to life. Nude sweltering bodies, tipsy sunsets, arrogant seagulls, exotic hikers, no rules – all in my living room; accessible to a worldwide audience via Zoom link. Also partly available to passersby and my neighbors locked in isolation in the apartment block next door, as 4 naked men were painted on my balcony glazing. For about 3 days this caused socially-distanced gatherings of chuckling older ladies in the street.
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RESORT EXHIBITION
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RESORT EXHIBITION Herculeses
Throughout history, man has always been seen as armed: by virtue of his strength -- he is a hunter and a protector. Today, physical strength is not a guarantee of success or status, so the traditional notion of masculinity is dissolved in modern social values. A man naturally has a greater potential for muscle strength than a woman. As a woman, it is difficult for me to imagine what it feels like to have male physical strength. 32
The beauty of the male body was fully celebrated in ancient times, and we are left with a lot of handsome marble sculptures from classical sculptors. Those marble men excite the imagination with their massive hips and wide, embossed torsos. Depicting the curly torsos of Hercules ready for a feat, I return to the ancient fascination with the aesthetics of the male body. Such a body is unrealistic for most men, as are the mythical plots of Hercules’ Labors.
BOYS BY GIRLS EXHIBITION A group exhibition of female emerging artists, who work with the subject of masculinity in their artwork.
Ballerino video art The perception of ballet as a predominantly female performance art is widespread in society. Male ballet dancers literally lift ballerinas over their heads, reinforcing the common idea of masculinity and femininity. If you try to enter the gender-neutral phrase “ballet dancer” into the search engine, you will see a man in only 10% of the images. In the age of equality, is there a place for strict gender roles, so traditional for classical ballet? How should modern spectators perceive classical ballet, and above all, how should self-identify those ballet dancers, who do not agree with gender restrictions? The animated video-art “Ballerino” blurs the line between nudity and a beautiful leotard, which demonstrates the dancer’s toned legs. I express my admiration for the athleticism and flexibility of men who dance ballet, for their impressive range of motion. Most of them face crude manifestations of gender discrimination from an early age, despite which they dedicate their lives to a complex and exhausting profession. 33
XUIANH SISTERS artist duo The XUIANH Sisters project explores the phenomenon of the contemporary woman, whose identity is affected by the Ukrainian historical and cultural context. The aesthetics of XUIANH are an anarchic mixture of folk traditions, Soviet heritage, and modern globalization. Our means of artistic expression are costume, photography, and performance. Most of the characters created by the duo are inspired by Ukrainian myths and folk traditions: swamplings, kikimora, mermaids. The sisters try to rethink the notion of femininity, going beyond the shame and uniformity, imposed by the small town social environment. Since childhood, Maryna Dovhanych and Oksana Nikolaieva have shared a passion for transforming themselves into mystical characters. Inspired by fashion magazines, secretly from their parents, they made costumes from improvised materials. The sisters’ grandmother often becomes an involuntary participant of their artistic endeavors, weeping behind the scenes and begging the girls to wash their faces and finally come to their senses.
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XUIANH SISTERS EXHIBITION AND PERFORMANCE The XUIANH Sisters were invited to Kosmos Studio to do their solo art exhibition for International Women’s Day, where they also did an art-performance inspired the office gossip culture, accompanied by a musical composition from TheBalanced (dj). Gossip in the office has a detrimental effect on the quality of work and reduces productivity by 40-60% (according to our own estimates). We warn you: do not gossip in the workplace!
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XUIANH SISTERS EXHIBITION AND PERFORMANCE
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VELO NEW YEAR Duration: 20” This short animation was commissioned by a Ukrainian cycling race organizer as an animated New Year’s card for their social media. The brief asked for a bicycle, winter attributes, and to demonstrate, that the coronavirus stays in 2020, and in 2021 racing will continiue as normal. The sky is filled with green stars, which are very similar to the coronavirus symbol. A cyclist in winter kit is on the road. His face is hidden behind a balaclava and glasses. The word “finish” is reflected in the glasses; it is growing, indicating that the cyclist is approaching the finish gate. The camera revolves around the cyclist and we see him passing under the gate with 2020 written on it. On the other side of the gate the green stars turn yellow, the camera revolves around the cyclist’s head, and we see his face again. This time he is smiling, without a mask and glasses, and in his hand he holds a celebratory glass. In the background is the other side of the race gate; it says “START 2021”.
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CHANGE OF PLANS autobiographical short story 1/2
I found out about David Lynch’s work when I was a high school student. At that time I naively convinced myself that I was an intellectual, therefore I took an analytic approach to Lynch’s films, believing that I could decipher all hidden meanings. I watched several films, and while I truly enjoyed the visuals, I quickly recognized that the ambiguity of his stories prevented me from coming to a conclusive explanation. This discouraged me from watching more. Ten years later, I felt a sudden urge to rediscover his legacy, starting with Eraserhead. The film revolves around Henry – a man, who abruptly finds out he is father to a repulsive creature, which looks nothing like a human baby. Suffocated by doubt and anxiety, he still takes responsibility and cares for the child: he feeds it, tends to it when it’s sick, up to a point when he can no longer take it. This time I knew not to look for hidden meanings, so I relaxed and inhaled the story. 44
I had strange dreams that night. At first, I find out that I have suddenly acquired a baby and I don’t know where to put it in my small studio apartment. I stuff it into the microwave and decide it’s the baby’s room. This has been a recurring theme in my dreams for the past six months, as I actively resist heavy social pressure to have children. It was followed by an even more bizarre dream, where I was invited to a Chinese gourmet restaurant, whose signature dish was a roll of medium-rare dog meat, combined with the meat of a human child, wrapped up in pickled herring fillet. I am deeply excited about tasting this dish. As I unwrap the roll, it dawns on me, that I have a moral barrier against eating dog meat. This realization startles me, because in reality I considered the consumption of dogs to be a normal thing. I go for the other piece of meat instead. Then I realize that I’m eating human meat and it’s quite tasty, so I ask for a second serving. While I am enjoying the dish, my eyes catch a newspaper with an article about a pedophile, who murdered a 10 year old girl and gave her corpse to the chef of this restaurant to cook. There is a picture of the man; he has a disturbingly evil smile and burlesque ballet shoes with unreasonably long toes. I realize that I partook in child murder! I start shaking violently and wake up. The following morning started with the uneasy feeling, that I subconsciously disregarded someone’s life in my dream. Should I be worried about my moral stance? That day my friends and I planned to test the route of an upcoming cycling race, but our ride ended prematurely when I suggested we stop for a nature break. There was a box of eight abandoned baby kittens in that exact spot. Change of plans -- now we were on a kitty-rescue mission. I didn’t live with pets and I had no intention of starting. But as the hours passed, as dozens of shelters were contacted, it became clear that nobody wanted the kittens. I wished for our rescue mission to be successful. A deviant thought emerged in my mind: why look for someone if I can provide a temporary home for a couple of kittens myself? They’re tiny, how much food and space do they need anyway? I had no good reason not to give them a shot
CHANGE OF PLANS autobiographical short story 2/2
at life. Thoughts about the importance of life took over, amplified by the guilt I experienced in my dream, thus the decision was made – I must foster two kittens. After all, it’s only temporary, there’s no way I will keep one. For some reason it was clear to me that this experience will bring positive change into my life. I had controversial feelings about my decision until the kittens arrived at my home. It undeniably resembled the unexpected parenthood Henry experiences in Eraserhead. The non-human children of an unknown cat mother quickly became a huge part of my life, demanding constant care and attention. The next evening both of them became limp and unresponsive, they looked dead but I could still hear their heartbeats. They were in a dangerous state commonly referred to as the ‘fading kitten syndrome’, which if untreated, can end in death within an hour. I brought one of them back to life fairly quickly; the reanimation of the other one however took me all night. It was the most profound all-nighter of my life so far: maintaining the breath of life in a creature’s tiny fading body fully depended on me. The responsibility and fatigue were overwhelming, but I couldn’t give up, and all of us survived that night. I felt like a parent. My distanced approach of handling the kittens in gloves was quickly replaced by cuddling and letting them walk across my face. They smelled of sweet kitten milk and purred me to sleep. I started obsessing over cats, looking at funny pictures of them online, and reading articles on cat diet and behavior. The lynchian feeling disappeared; I felt love. It came out of nowhere and drowned me, like the experience of first romantic affection. They were constantly learning, growing by the hour. One of the things they learned was how to climb into my bed at night. I didn’t want them to track dirt into my bedding, so I tried to discourage them from doing it, but it turned out that my only option was to let them sleep with me. It was magical, the warmth and purring made me feel rested even though I didn’t really fall asleep from fear of accidentally squishing them.
It was time for me to give one of them away into a permanent home – a pleasant relief and a suffocating sadness. By that time I was extremely tired from two weeks of parental sleep deprivation. I had to bottle-feed them every 2 hours, including at night, it exhausted me and blurred my sanity. My remaining kitten started showing health problems; she constantly screamed and refused to eat. I was so tired and frustrated, that I started regretting the day we found them and some wild thoughts started emerging in my foggy fatigued mind. I found a flea in her fur and she tested positive for parasites, which were making her very ill. Now I need to constantly disinfect my home, get ready for a flea infestation, and spend a bunch of money and energy to treat a kitten I picked up in the street. But no matter how tired and frustrated I am, I will not give up on her. I took responsibility for her life, so I must cure her and find her a home. Shortly, I was contacted by a woman who wanted to adopt my kitten. Change of plans -- I never called her back.
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Rural France
Urban Poland
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