Imaginary Land, Twin Membranes (2023)
Materials: artificial skin, steel, electric components, etc.
Gallery XY Olomouc, CZ
The exhibition “Constructing Utopia” curated by Anna Bochikova was conducted followed by artist conferences, workshops on the themes of Speculating Utopia.
Considering skin as a highly political site where nation and indivisual, intimacy and biopolitics converge, by using materials such as chains, steels and fences, the artist explores the idea of proximity and its embedded duality.
Having previously explored the representation of machines that are open to vulnerability from a perspective of care, throughout her recent work Maya has conducted extensive research on the skin and morphological abnormalities found on animals left behind in Chornobyl and Fukushima. By transforming the skin and structure of the machines she explores based on this research, she attempts to reverse-engineer the accumulated record of geo-trauma brought about by humans within the speculative futurity she presents. It is a practice that attempts to dislocate a facet of technology that has been accelerated through war and invasion, as well as an attempt to de-anthropocentrise its representation.
photos by Jakub Cermak
