Polina Shcherbyna

Polina Shcherbyna

Polina Shcherbyna lives and works in Leipzig and Berlin, DE. Born in Kyiv, UA (1993). The artist works with the expansion of the concept and perception of painting, which she positions as an object with reflection on icon and temple esthetic. Polina interprets her artworks as a double view of the world of the fall of the Anthropocene idea.

That is why she creates different kinds of installations with double-sided artworks on wood in the technique of pyrography and carving, which sometimes include poetry sound as an additional element of the spatial-auditory perception of the work.

On the one hand, Polinaʼs works, are filled with horror and powerlessness before the dark side of humanity, but at the same time, they are filled with faith in the future. A main material for the artist is an unprimed linen fabric glued with layers of gelatin, which fixes crumpled curves and torn edges of the fabric, and captures time in the form of bends and folds on the canvas. The prototype of this technical method visually is the shroud. The artist creates an image with partial loss of information, this technical feature reminds us of the illusory nature of time and memory is the imprint that history leaves behind.

Throughout the entire artistic practice, her works are related to corporeality and the use of antianatomy techniques.

This research is related to the physical and spiritual in human, later in nature and in image of a tree. In the reflections on the topic of loss and hope for healing in Polina's works of the last years, there are built connections with deep ecology, dark vitality, the body of the war, the sacralization of death, humanity's suffering, and sacrifice in the modern world through the prism of the circle of history and Christianity.

Artwork Details

    • Location
    • Ukraine
    • Dimensions
    • 140cm x 210cm
    • Years
    • 2023
    • Framing
    • No framed

Description

"Some landscapes will remain only in the stories and legends of people who once saw life in them, in the past life, before the war.

Now all these places are reminders of death, which took away all living things, including man.

The territory for which blood is spilled becomes a shelter of ashes, every day the ashes cover a new piece of land.

All the roles have been distributed, it remains only to wait. Passive observation or active participation, compassion and suffering, many victims - everything turns into "waiting" in which time freezes and it is scary to think about the future, but it is allowed to think about it only with hope. Not everyone will be taken into the future, but the ashes will definitely be there, but at least not alone.

The winter landscape has changed to - the landscape of emptiness" contains a dialogue with the art piece "Winter landscape" by Anselm Kiefer, in his work he reflected on the theme of the Second World War, depicting in his work its consequences, in the image of a severed head of a woman levitating above the winter landscape.

In my work, I depict a dead bird levitating over a burnt landscape. In dialogue with Kiefer's work, I analyze wartime as matter, which suggests that we will fully understand all the horrors and mistakes of war only by distancing ourselves from the events. When the present becomes the past. But the consequences that we have are already only wounds that will not soon turn into scars.

Through the events of the Second World War, I try to understand what the russian-Ukrainian war will lead to, which in one way or another applies to everyone today and can lead to terrible consequences for the existence of humanity in the future."

Polina Shcherbyna

The Winter Landscape Has Changed To — The Landscape Of Emptiness

2023, Painting, Acryl, Unprimed linen canvas, Folds, Gelatin , Contemporary

Digitized using

in ultra-high resolution Digital Original artwork from original painting, authenticity and quality was verified by the gallery curators & artist.

  • Resolution:
    400 MPX (23296 x 17472 px)
  • Color depth:

    16 bit 281 Trillion Colors

  • Original file size:

    1756 MB DNG File

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