Zhanna Kadyrova. Series “Residential Area.” 2015–2016. Collage, installation, exhibition view

Series description

Installations of this series are presented in two formats: as silhouettes of high-rise buildings stuck on windows and as separate blocks made of organosilicate glass. The latter were stacked one on top of another by the artist in the shape of a pyramid, placing photographs of interiors and exteriors of Ukrainian homes inside. Kadyrova documented these buildings during expeditions across regions of Ukraine, and also supplemented the selection with photographs sent to her by residents of cities and villages. By turning private space outward, the artist questions the boundary between personal and public. Her work offers a panorama of someone else’s home, which can be observed simultaneously. It is a kind of panopticon, where each room is under constant surveillance. As in Michel Foucault’s poststructuralist philosophy, power here appears as an all-seeing eye that not only observes but also disciplines the behavior of everyone in modern society.

This project remains relevant in the exhibition space of the 2020s, juxtaposing two phases of the Russian invasion — in eastern Ukraine after 2014 and the full-scale aggression after 2022. The intensification of the war further destroys the human right to personal space, taking away and destroying homes. In contrast to the now common photographs of buildings damaged by Russian missiles or reduced to rubble, these images capture structures intact. Although the previous phase of the war also brought destruction, its scale at that time was different. The facades chosen by the author are intact, but the blocks themselves are transparent and fragile, as concrete can lose its strength and crumble from shelling at any moment. Other people’s homes, like a house of cards, are assembled into a fragile structure that can collapse in an instant.