OLGA BABAK / On the Surface / WITHIN THE ARTIST RESIDENCE

OLGA BABAK
On the Surface
within the artist residence

opening
24.04.2019 / 5 p.m.

exhibition
25 – 29.04.2019
Centrum Centre for Creative Activities in Ustka / ul. Zaruskiego 1a
free entrance

During the residence, I was interested in the images such as artifacts, which became part of my way to the understanding and discovering the city Ustka. For the artist, the beach and its surrounding areas may have been uncovered as a source of the experience and discoveries, where the phenomena or processes may contain the identity and specific history. Lost items such as a dropped ticket or a piece of paper, a baby sack, etc. are like traditional kitschy souvenirs – photographs, magnets or stones from the sea, which became my material references to the places I have visited.

However, the main idea for my art research and creation of the art book formed the found linear markings – the drawing boundaries between the city and the coastal zone. In this case, the borders can be seen as an image and metaphor, which transforms the line into the instrument that breaks down and combines one with another or, in fact, generates this dichotomy: city and beach, season and no season, personal references and mass media products, fairy tales and routine.

Olga Babak is a visual artist from Ukraine, who graduated from Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. She had solo exhibitions in Ukraine and Poland, and participated in group exhibitions, art residences and festivals in Ukraine, Poland and Turkey, she also received a scholarship from Ministry of Culture of Poland “Gaude Polonia”. Studies of how personal identity depends on and evolves in different places and surroundings form her major interest.