Temporary Habitat is a site-responsive installation, which explores ideas of displacement, home, immigration, memory and alienation through the mix of found objects, video and participatory performance. Acting as a DIY impermanent shelter, created from found and collected objects, both from outdoors and indoors tenancy environments, Temporary Habitat invites visitors to enter the site, lie or sit down, watch videos, read books and converse with the “inhabitant”, occasionally present on site in a participatory durational action. Stemming from the artist’s personal biography of constant migration and travel, from Ukraine to Australia to Europe and eventually to USA, the work deals with the current state of global crisis of refugees and immigration. The video in the installation explores rootless existence through a performance, in which the protagonist throws and wraps discarded clothing and bedding around their body to keep warm and comfortable.
Review in HuffPost
Review in Arte Fuse
Temporary Habitat, tent, army cot, carpet, clothing, TV set, HD video, toys, books, yarn, rope, performance. Presented at Smack Mellon, NYC as part of UPROOT exhibition. Photos Etienne Frossard and video stills.
Temporary Habitat, 2017, performance, 10 mins, excerpt
The Inhabitant, 2017, 20 mins