Tetiana Kornieieva

I worked a lot as an artist, mostly exploring my identity in my works. Covid made common a private topic of a sickness and illness. It also made me to think about art perspectives in general. I made some personal projects, which was really about personal issue (love/don’t love), which in its sense is related to a global topic of losing myself. Also I made some videos about my self-isolation days.

I made a performance serie “Self Isolation”, where I explore the topic of isolation and how it is related to me. “In my daily life I am constantly on the move. I work as a designer, I have many projects, also study languages, dance, create performances and make films. But, at one point, everything stopped and I had to close in the apartment. I felt the loss of myself and looked out the window a lot at people who were required to perform daily routine work, providing comfort to everyone who is on self-isolation. They are the cogs of a large system and only in extreme conditions can the meaning of each individual person be understood.

During quarantine in connection with covid-19, I shooted video documentations of everyday life and my short performances during walks with a dog (which were allowed in my country). It is about my reflection on the topic of the epidemic, there is an attempt to regain part of ordinary life

The seria is being supplemented since the quarantine has been extended. “Self-Isolation N1 (2020)” is a performance, which I made during first months of covid-19 pandemy. I had to stay at home because the restriction rules were strong and went out only for walk my dog. I lived close to a botanical garden and I entered there and discovered, that the fountain, which always worked in this time, stoped to work because there were almost no visitors in the garden. I decided to fit my body into this fountain, exploring the idea of “isolated architectural forms” during the pandemy. I don’t move because due to covid we can’t move a lot (in case travel and go around).

I wanted to hyperbolize this idea “not to move” and put some stones on my face. During the performance I tried to keep these stones on my face. * the performance was made with my dog Schöne, who was the main reason to go outside.

“Self-Isolation N3 (2020)” is a performance, which I made during first months of covid-19 pandemy. I had to stay at home because the restriction rules were strong and went out only for walk my dog. I lived close to a botanical garden and a small park near my house. When I studied cultural anthropology, I discovered that people from different sides of the world can make common actions. For example, marking the trees is very popular action, which helps to identify the borders or mark territories. It could be a signal of danger, marking the borders of someone’s space, signal, which helps not to get lost in the forest. All our life is about the borders and separation: country, culture, politics, identity.

When we talk about the borders, it sounds physically in case we say «to make a border» or «to draw a border line».

In folklore tradition leaving a mark was a kind of ritual, which helped main character to get home or to the place he/she needed. I decided to make this ritualic movement, according to covid situation. I found some burnt wood, which people left after the bonfire. I started to paint on the trees. But this charcoal is a natural material, so it will disappear with a rain. It means that borders I made will disappear like all borders are destroyed, when we are talking about the pandemic situation.

No one isn’t safe = no one has a border. Even when we are isolated from each other.

In this performance I also make some fire from sparklers, which we use when celebrate something. This fire seems to be safe, but can hurt you when you are to close to it. Sparklers are the metaphor of separation and safe distance.

Performance was done in the pandemic period. In different cultures, hair is a symbol of vitality, and therefore its loss is a signal of illness / old age or withdrawal from the community. For example, the biblical character Samson lost his power when his braid was cut. Hair is associated with the initiation ritual. An unmarried girl braids her hair into a braid, or put in her hair with ribbons / wreaths. Married woman puts a shawl on her head. However, at the same time, covering the hair could be an act of shame when a girl lost her virginity or became pregnant out of wedlock.

In Ukrainian folklore and literature such women were called pokrytka (the one that covers the hair) and excluded from the community. Sometimes family and society forced them to leave their parents’ house. “I lost a lot of hair during the depression, which is related to the impossibility of marriage. I kept this hair in a tangle. In the process of performance, I unravel this tangle.

Ritual with hair / head covering with a wreath and ribbons is a kind of game associated with divination of the lover. That’s why my action was influenced by the idea of the game “love / don’t love”, for which flower petals are usually used. I used hair instead of petals.

During the performance, I created a symbolic action, which was regaining a symbolic loss of identity. After unraveling, I attached the hair to a white wood levkas, prepared for sacral paintings, demonstrating traditional for our culture’s commitment to the abstract look-cult, which can be lost in connection with different life situations.”