Biografia
An idiosyncratic specimen of globalization, I was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, my father being North Korean and my mother being Russian. Having caught a glimpse of the ex-USSR, I have a nostalgic, conflicting perception of political and cultural systems. Unable to fully assimilate into any one culture, I find myself as an outsider with an eclectic artistic taste. Art represents the act of seeking, assembling and immortalizing beauty. Through artistic practice, I recreate the state of inspiration and emancipation, experienced during my childhood. As a consequence of my fixation on the past, my works strive to capture the ephemeral impressions. The concepts, which I explore in my work, include the globalization, surveillance, nostalgia, utopia and eroticism. In my artwork, I combine detailed, stylized portraiture with abstract, ornamental elements in the background, taking inspiration from the work of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. My most recent selection of pen and pencil drawings investigates the utopian world of communal erotic experiences in the context of ritualized ceremonies and stylistically influenced by the Art Nouveau British artist, Aubrey Beardsley. As an artist, I similarly delve into the realm of independent cinema, incorporating digital, 16mm and 2D animation. Some of the directors, whom I respect, include the Maya Deren, Steven Soderbergh, Andrei Tarkovsky, Wong Kar-wai and Kathryn Bigelow. I am currently editing a medium-length feature, which comes to terms with my inability to remember certain positive emotions from my childhood prior to the age of seven years old, which I spent in Almaty, Kazakhstan, as a result of immigration. Another film project in my pipeline is an experimental documentary, consisting of digital and 16mm film and revolving around the contemporary UK Wicca religion.
