INHABITANCY (2010-2011)
The times when people perceived the great mother-nature as a difficult system of metamorphic images, trying to live in harmony with it, are already gone. Now, we can see images of animals everywhere. Most of us are able to observe wild animals by means of mass media: there is a great number of beautiful movies, photos, posters, etc. The “Inhabitancy” project features naturalistic animal figures located in a typical city environment. They are so expressive and look so real that at first, we think that it is a world of wild nature. Yet, after taking a closer look, we realize that this is the human, equally wild world, predominated by concrete, paint, pipes, plastic and many other synthetic materials as well as rubbish surrounding us every day. The rubbish has become our trademark. If you see it, it means that the place was visited by people. This is the reality in which our children grow up. In their play, they place the characters in a setting that is known and familiar to them, without thinking of the global world. The statement that big things start with small ones seem to be true: pollution of the planet, driving animals away from their native habitats, where, for the sake of profit, people cut down woods and pollute water with toxic waste and used up plastic. When children become adults, they transfer this reality to the big, real world. When we change what has taken nature hundreds of years to create just to satisfy our whims, we are like children building sandcastles.
Elena Saenko
born in 1976 in Krasnodar (Russia), where she currently lives
She has been educated by well-known and already recognized photo artists – Victor Khmel and Elena Sukhoveeva, who became her friends and true companions in her artistic activity.
In 2008 she took part in the I International Festival of Photography PHOTOVISA with a project entitled “The Crackling”. At the end of 2010 she started her work on the “Inhabitancy” project. In 2011 she participated in the III International Festival of Photography Photovisa with this project. In the same year she took part in the Portfolio Review, Photovisa, which has given her new strength and energy, and has inspired her to continue the creative search.
Now, spending all her time with her child, Elena Saenko is exploring the world through things that surround her in her daily life. She finds it interesting to rethink everything and to show the world of things which have forgotten their functionality. And the more temporal these things are, the more appreciable and wonderful the transformation will be, so that you can see the process. By these phenomena we can look at people, society and the surrounding world from a different perspective. We can break and dispel the illusion, and see the real reasons for various problems and phenomena.
There are some things and events that people does not notice being submerged in their own world, which requires stability and does not change. Routine activities are performed automatically, but if the stability gets broken, life perspective and views change. She believes that people are able to see the world and be more supraliminal, and then, perhaps, the world will become better.
KLUB JAZZGA
Piotrkowska 17
slide show: 12.05, 9.30 p.m.
