Alexandra Dementieva
– Twin Dephts (2018)
– Source of Energy (2021)
– Their Portraits (2023)
Alexandra Dementieva shows a combination of work in which she comments, often with a sense of humour, on environmental and other problems resulting from human actions. In doing so, she urges the urgent need to find other, more sustainable ways of living, in harmony with nature.
Twin Depths is a video installation on seven screens. A series of underwater performances shows an attempt by the artist to return to our natural state. Her starting point is that we live in a world pressurised by human activities. The consequences are fires, droughts, hurricanes, tsunamis that make the world uninhabitable. Since humanity is bound to continue its destruction of a natural environment, the artist decides on an alternative lifestyle. It is well known that all living organisms originate from the ocean. Over millions of years of evolution, we have achieved a huge amount by turning from blue-green algae into humans with a video camera, computer or smartphone. And now an artist made up of 70% water is trying to return to her natural element. She does this by repeating banal ‘above-ground’ actions that are part of our life on earth in the warm, soft waters of the Bay of Kotor, among fish, crabs and sea urchins.
The series of performances began on 7 August 2018 with ‘Sweeping the Floor’ and lasted for a total of seven days. Every attempt to settle underwater was a total failure.
In the light sculpture Source of Energy in the form of an out-sized glucose molecule, Dementieva works with Kombucha SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. There are several myths and legends surrounding kombucha, one even about its alien origins. In any case, it cannot be specifically attributed to one particular plant kingdom, but is a kind of hybrid. Inside the bulbs of the enlarged glucose molecule are LEDs with separate colours for each of the elements hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. The light intensity is controlled by adding kombucha to a brew of sweet tea. This triggers bacterial growth and converts sucrose into fructose and glucose. The latter is the main source of energy in all organisms. The installation in which art, science and technology meet, highlights the importance of and collaboration with non-human organisms.
Source of Energy was produced in collaboration with Cyland Laboratory.
Their Portraits (2023) is a video installation that can be described as an artistic collaboration between the artist and the AI application Midjourney. In it, fictional aliens resembling tardigrades or water bears are created.
These creatures interact with their environment through their senses in a unique way. Because they inhabit a human environment, their experience is alien to us. The installation highlights how important it is to consider the unique perspective and subjective experience of a non-human organism when studying behaviour and ecology.
1960, BE.
Multimedia & multidisciplinary artist. Her work mainly focuses on – and is influenced by – everyday life: the political, social and cultural events that occur and change our ideas and perception of the world around us. Her installations focus on the role of the viewer and her/his interaction with an artwork.