I was born into a multinational family in the Turkmen SSR a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The social and cultural landscape I grew up was shaped by both central Asian and soviet elements. Arriving in Europe to undertake my higher education I was immediately struck by the huge cultural disparities I experienced and this caused me to reflect on my identity and, in a broader existential sense, on who I am and why I’m here.
In my practice I try to find answers to these questions by addressing the themes of birth and death through exploration of my femininity, drawing on my cultural origins and the social framework in which I grew up. I explore how intergenerational memory can influence identity formation and how life-changing events can radically alter family patterns.
Trying to capture the fragility of being, I use my own and my family's memories to create artefacts of my own experiences. By working with materials that relate directly to me emotionally or physically - hair, photographs, videos, and body casts, as well as historical items and photographs from the family archive, I work to connect these elements as atoms of a whole, and attempt to manifest the essential reality of my identity.
