EXCAVATIONS OF THE FUTURE
Technical Details
Project Title: Excavations of the Future
Timeline: 2026 (Ongoing)
Medium / Materials: Multidisciplinary installation (High-fired chamotte clay, experimental metallic, iron, and gold-toned glazes)
Dimensions: Dimensions variable (Modular spatial installation)
Category: Ceramic Sculpture / Spatial Installation
Project Description
'Excavations of the Future' is an ongoing multidisciplinary project driven by the necessity for cultural decolonization, historical justice, and the reclamation of stolen narratives. Raised on lands historically occupied by the ancient Scythian civilization, the artist's immediate environment was defined by burial mounds (kurgans) whose histories are woven into her personal identity. Following the escalation of the war, numerous Ukrainian regional museums were looted, and historical Scythian gold remains systematically displaced and exhibited in the Hermitage. This heritage is weaponized by imperial institutions and state propaganda to enforce the geopolitical myth of 'one people' and institutionalize cultural appropriation.
In response to this systemic erasure, 'Excavations of the Future' functions as a conceptual and physical reconstruction of a sovereign cultural identity. The project consists of an extensive, evolving series of sculptural objects that reinvent the traditional Scythian animal style. Rejecting classical replication, the works forge a raw, contemporary visual language that acts as an 'archaeology of life' from a modern perspective.
Within this practice, clay serves as a primal medium of sovereignty, and the technological process of high-firing operates as a conceptual manifesto. The action of the kiln symbolizes the burning away of the ideological layers, propaganda, and historical distortions imposed upon Ukrainian culture. Utilizing dark, metallic, iron, and gold-toned glazes, the sculptures reference the materiality of ancient artifacts while remaining deeply contemporary. Designed as a flexible, modular installation, the series expands and reconfigures according to the spatial and architectural context of the gallery—whether installed on walls or positioned across the floor—transforming ceramic materiality into an analytical tool of resistance and cultural autonomy.
