Katya Usvitsky -

'My family immigrated from Minsk, Belarus to the suburbs of Cleveland in 1992, when I was 11 years old. This major transition made me feel like a fish out of water for most of my awkward teenage years and it really wasn’t until I embraced my roots that I felt like I could develop my own voice.'
- Katya Usvitsky

Katya Usvitsky is a fiber artist who has used thread and yarn as three-dimensional image-making tools throughout her work. Also using Embroidery and knitting as forms of expressing her work shes sees these means as timeless methods of human expression that have a hidden history. Embroidery and knitting are Seen as mere women’s work, and solely utilitarian, they were not welcomed into the gallery world. Usvitsky's work seeks to build on notions of femininity, family and tradition, while introducing fiber arts into the contemporary art realm.

Personal tradition is obviously an important aspect and influence throughout her work using meditative process and repetitive motion of art form to feel natural and organic compared to the pace of contemporary life.

From looking at some of her pieces, I feel a connection to my theme, decay. The three-dimensionl cancerous, growth like masses are perceived as negative as they destruct a body or structure. Seeing this as an art piece, you know there is More depth and meaning behind the piece.

Angela Canada Hopkins





'I wanted to embrace an enemy to overcome it; within the playful and spontaneous brush strokes I lay a colorful conquest of cancerous matter. After loosing my father to cancer in my last year of art school--June 2001--the bittersweet and therapeutic irony began to spill out onto the canvas. I use a pure and lively incorporation of acrylic on canvas to create galaxies of basic fatal structures studied on a microscopic level. My process is a non-traditional manner, originally forming these metastasizing expressions out of intuition and the study of photographs of cancerous cells. I assess and reassess the spontaneous marks, adding and taking away, until I feel like it is complete.'
http://www.canadahopkins.com/links.php?53769
-Angela Canada Hopkins

Visually, The paintings can be deceiving and misinterpreted, associated with space, galaxy and the unknown. Cancer is common, in fact 1/3 people get cancer and its the cause of 13% of all human deaths worldwide. This killing disease, although familiar, it is almost a forbidden topic. People usually know someone who suffers or has died from this, therefore it may be personal. For the artist she uses painting as her personal therapy and way of releasing emotion and accepting what cancer did to her father. The paintings are beautiful which contrasts to the intense lively brush strokes and feelings which have gone into each piece. It is only when you research the meaning and concept of this work when you can begin to understand and appreciate it. I am particularly interested in how the work is portrayed by the audience, contrasting with the actual concept. Hopkin's work is a great example as her paintings are attractive and beautiful, almost for the wrong reasons as she is displaying her acceptance of her dads killer being cancer. Microscopically cancer is physically appealing but the destruction what it can bring to the body is unattractive.

Ideas-






My theme 'Decay' is in relation to class and status, lead me to think if I was able to change the galleries status by creating an environment of decay and growth, would this change the value of the work? The decay would be displayed in all corners of the gallery, eating away at the galleries structure, line and form. The clinical looking white cube space destructed by cell-like growth, eating away and attatching itself to the straight edges of the room.
What materials would i use?
bubble wrap?, variety of fabrics? melting and painting on top to create this festation of mold. Artist such as Ernesto Neto- have similarly degraded and manipulated the space, creating an abstract installation made from biomorphic sculptures which the audience could interact with.
What I like about the idea of decaying the gallery is that the art space which usually gives the piece of art, more value, status and sense of achievement is manipulated with something connected with death and deterioation.