School of Visual Arts Residency in Contemporary Practices, June 2024

In my practice, I have been exploring the landscapes of memory as it relates to history, time and place. The works center around experiments in image-making, combining found and analog material with digital processes and manipulations. The studio has, on exhibit, prints and etchings on glass and metal, large-scale monotype image transfers, and video projection.

Memory Work, is made from archival materials sourced from the documented histories surrounding the outskirts of Kiev, at the Babyn Yar ravine, in a neighborhood called Kurenivka. Its historical legacy begins on September 29, 1941, where over 30,000 people were murdered by the occupying Nazi forces. They were executed in the ravine and buried in mass graves. After the war, the Soviet government worked to develop this area, building residential and municipal buildings atop this site.

On March 13, 1961, an internal dam exploded, causing a devastating mudslide throughout the area, taking homes and hundreds of lives with it. Documentation of these events, which are present in the works around the studio, were classified and buried by Soviet officials at the time. Later, as the efforts to clear up the effects of the mudslide, the history of this site was unearthed once again. The remains of those who died came to the surface. Local parties, invested in memorializing Babyn Yar, began work to identify the gravesites, visiting the overgrown ravine. Today, it exists as a park, with memorial sites woven throughout, a backdrop for the happenings of daily life. The artworks relating to this series are forms of memory-scapes, a path that leads to the present. 

Time Passes Through is a series of glass etchings made from portraits taken of my grandmother, grandfather and great-grandmother for their exit visas from Soviet-era Ukraine in anticipation of their journey to America. The etchings are layered with floral motifs, extracted from pre-Soviet textiles. Light passes through them, casting a positive image on the wall’s surface. Depending on one’s movement in relation to the works, the casted image moves from reflection to shadow. Though my family members have passed on during my lifetime, their reflections remain present, appearing through the bloom.

Memory Work

(left to right)

  1. At the Ravine (after war)

    monotype on paper

    42.5” x 55”


  2. The Return

    aluminum uv print

    6 “x 36”


  3. Welcome to Babyn Yar

    monotype on paper

    66” x 51”


  4. At the Graves (after mudslide)

    monotype and glass uv print

    55” x 42”, 8” x 10”


  5. The Work of Memory

    monotype and ash on paper

    21” x 8”


  6. Kurenivka, The Low Lying

    archival footage*, projector

    9 minutes, 15 seconds


Time Passes Through

(left to right)

  1. Anna

    etching on glass

    12” x 10”


  2. Fanya

    etching on glass

    12” x 10”


  3. Leonid

    etching on glass

    12” x 10”




*found audio, documents, and video credits:

Babyn Yar. Context

David Mottershead

Anna Akhmatova (ruverses)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Emmanuel Diamant and Joseph Shneider