Images: Amelia Read Photography
UK Residency: Artistic responseS to the climate crisis
We welcomed Alexandra Krolikowska and Karolina Uskakovych back to Newcastle for the next phase of their (Re)Grounding residency. Here in Newcastle for a month they used the time to map and explore interconnections between the North East and Ukraine’s industrial heritage and its impact on the climate crisis today, taking them on some extraordinary journeys.
Having grown up in the mining area of Donetsk, Ukraine, Alexandra continued to develop ideas around the history of coal, our reliance on it and parallels between miners’ lives in the UK and Ukraine. She visited Blast Beach in County Durham where sea coal can be foraged. The archives at Woodhouse Museum and former colliery in Northumberland and Newcastle’s the Common Room provided many insights into the history of heavy industry. Taking all these learnings back to the studio, she created a series of conceptual still life photographs infused with symbolic and mythological meaning to build a narrative questioning the ethics of the exploitation of the Earth.
Meanwhile, Karolina spent time at community gardens in the North East - visiting Scotswood and the Comfrey Project. She has a long-running interest in the concept of traditional ecological knowledge - local learnings and rituals that are passed on over generations. She has used this to think through knowledge accumulated within her own family in Ukraine - particularly her grandmother who grows fruit and vegetables - and in the UK among communal gardens and allotments. Karolina is also interested in the spirit of place – Genius Loci – which is often depicted as a snake in Roman mythology. To explore these themes she got her hands dirty, experimenting with earthly materials – soil, compost, grain and salt dough – that emphasise the fluid connections between humans, technologies and nature.
To celebrate their residencies, the artists presented their research to a public audience at the Common Room. They were joined by Mykhailo Glubokyi from our partner IZOLYATSIA, artist and curator Lucy Nychai and D6’s Director Clymene Christoforou. To mark the occasion, Karolina and Alexandra created a site-specific photo project, Empty Spaces, incorporating images capturing the story of coal amongst an imposing series of black and white photographs of the Mining Institute’s presidents, dating back to 1852.
The artists will return in autumn to continue their research and share the work in an exhibition in Newcastle - more details coming soon.
(Re)Grounding is a partnership between IZOLYATSIA and D6 and is part of the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture devised jointly by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.
Find out more here.
Having grown up in the mining area of Donetsk, Ukraine, Alexandra continued to develop ideas around the history of coal, our reliance on it and parallels between miners’ lives in the UK and Ukraine. She visited Blast Beach in County Durham where sea coal can be foraged. The archives at Woodhouse Museum and former colliery in Northumberland and Newcastle’s the Common Room provided many insights into the history of heavy industry. Taking all these learnings back to the studio, she created a series of conceptual still life photographs infused with symbolic and mythological meaning to build a narrative questioning the ethics of the exploitation of the Earth.
Meanwhile, Karolina spent time at community gardens in the North East - visiting Scotswood and the Comfrey Project. She has a long-running interest in the concept of traditional ecological knowledge - local learnings and rituals that are passed on over generations. She has used this to think through knowledge accumulated within her own family in Ukraine - particularly her grandmother who grows fruit and vegetables - and in the UK among communal gardens and allotments. Karolina is also interested in the spirit of place – Genius Loci – which is often depicted as a snake in Roman mythology. To explore these themes she got her hands dirty, experimenting with earthly materials – soil, compost, grain and salt dough – that emphasise the fluid connections between humans, technologies and nature.
To celebrate their residencies, the artists presented their research to a public audience at the Common Room. They were joined by Mykhailo Glubokyi from our partner IZOLYATSIA, artist and curator Lucy Nychai and D6’s Director Clymene Christoforou. To mark the occasion, Karolina and Alexandra created a site-specific photo project, Empty Spaces, incorporating images capturing the story of coal amongst an imposing series of black and white photographs of the Mining Institute’s presidents, dating back to 1852.
The artists will return in autumn to continue their research and share the work in an exhibition in Newcastle - more details coming soon.
(Re)Grounding is a partnership between IZOLYATSIA and D6 and is part of the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture devised jointly by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.
Find out more here.
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EMPTY SPACESEmpty Spaces is a site-specific photo project by Karolina and Alexandra, developed for the Edwardian Lecture Theatre in the Common Room in Newcastle. Find out more here.
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