Roxana Kadyrova
Bio: Roxana Kadyrova using a gossamer visual alphabet, disentangles our collective surreality. Through collage (spanning autobiographical photography and a personally totemic symbology) Kadyrova’s project is to evince a primitive sensitivity that approaches rootlessness. Her influences range from her Russian-Uzbeki roots in Moscow, her time spent in the School of Dramatic Arts (SFA), and her travels in the Maghreb.
roxanakadyrova.com
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: The moment a person is placed in the “black box” of theatre, they shed the ill-fit- ted suit of persona. They melt into currents. And when it’s time to leave the box, the subaquatic creature solidifies. Through the eye of a camera I was witnessing the same metamorphosis, the same liberat- ing constraint: the corporeal being in front of me was unshackled, delimited by the lens. I want to challenge the notion that the camera is meant to capture a moment in time. Instead, I want my work to inhabit a space similar to theatre, where one can dissolve and where states of transition can be explored.
Lampochka is a headless man who at- tempts to locate consciousness and reconcile persona with an essence. What can light make of a husk? Lampochka is an ode to electricity, a cheap miracle, a man-made answer to the endless night.
I imagine silver gelatin paper as a glass of eternity, when placed into the developer, the chemistry touches from below and the recorded breath of light is laid from above; It’s in that embrace, the embroidery of life can be revealed, when held long enough, the image turns into a black void of non-being.
My photograms explore a similar notion but using my own touch and body and ani- mal fat to leave a unique trace on the matrix of silver gelatin paper. The pattern specific to my own body, when transformed through the photochemistry resembles trees, mountains, and coral reefs. I become and I unbecome.
Roxana Kadyrova
Martin the Cat 1994, 2024
Multi-channel sound and video installation; Artist home videos from 1994, inkjet print, silver gelatin paper, and found objects
Courtesy of the artist
First Year Exhibition
Roxana Kadyrova
Bulb's dream, 2023
Single Channel Video
7:00 minutes
Courtesy the artist
