Veronika Cherednychenko was born in 1994 in Kherson, Ukraine and attended Warsaw Academy of Arts and Lviv National Academy of Arts, receiving a B.A. in art in 2018 and an M.F.A. in 2020. Since 2022 works as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lviv. Her works have been exhibited at galleries both nationally and internationally. Currently lives and works in Lviv, Ukraine.
Her artistic practice appeals to the unconscious, provoking the imagination in an attempt to look into the future or into oneself: nature, organic forms, growth dynamics, transformation, but also decay and death, fundamental and mundane processes for all living beings.
In her projects Veronika combines different materials and techniques to fully immerse the viewer in the project. Her body of work ranges from large-scale public art to VR projects.
ХБК
Kherson Cotton Factory – is one of the largest textile enterprises in Ukraine, which ceased to exist after the collapse of the Soviet Union, not having survived the transition to a capitalist system.
Construction began in 1952. The first stage of the plant was put into operation in 1961, the second in 1964. The plant included 3 different divisions of the factory: spinning and weaving and processing factories. Produced furniture and decorative, costume and clothing, shirt, linen, handkerchief, pile fabrics and terry fabric products.
In 1972, the capacity of the enterprise was over 180 million meters of fabric per year (600 thousand meters of fabric were produced per day). As of 1990, KhBK was the eighth largest cotton factory in Europe in terms of capacity.
The project was created in the context of the personal experiences of the artist Veronika Cherednychenko. Several generations of the artist’s family worked at the Kherson Cotton Factory.
The project has been created and presented during the residency in Istanbul, Turkey in December, 2022. Consists of three paintings, 130×140 cm each one, an installation 400×350 cm, made from fabric of Kherson Cotton Factory.
THE FIRST WEEK
drawing series 2022
Nothing was clear those days.
Everyone was preparing to face the enemy, making Molotov cocktails and setting up roadblocks. All the small works were about these ordinary objects we see in our rooms – scissors, chargers, cutlery.
Now they look acutely threatening, I wondered if they could be weapons.
It’s about the fear, numbness and anxiety of the first days of the war, about the awareness of the fragility of the human body and life. Now the first week series is transformed, but continues. I feel that the series’ name cannot be changed.
The first week will last as long as the war continues. Works from the series have already been presented at personal exhibitions in Vilnius and Berlin.
TARLE
A surreal reminiscence of home. The title is a reference to the name of the street in Kherson, the place where I spent my childhood. This is a city in the south of Ukraine that has been under Russian occupation for six months now.
Soviet panel buildings are laid out in a specific pattern, easily recognized from a bird’s-eye view, but deceitfully labyrinth-like if you are inside them.
Contours and boundaries lose their clarity once you get closer and try to remember the details.
I am afraid that I am forgetting my home, which I left ten years ago, and which I started missing only now when it’s impossible to go back. This project consists of 4 drawings, 55×55 cm each one, a video work and VR experience (video 360).
‘TARLE’ was created during the residency program in Taipei, presented at the Taiwan Annual (September, 2022).
METAFOREST
multimedia project 2022
With this project, I continue to think about the future of nature from another angle – will it be needed in the metaverse? Obviously, yes – there are already VR applications in which your avatar just walks and enjoys the amazing scenery. What about experience? Will we consider it real?
Is there a difference between a real and a fake forest if it brings genuine emotions?
The events of recent years have significantly accelerated the development of technology, people are forced to isolate themselves from time to time, and virtual reality for a person is better than none. Internet algorithms attract consumers with new proposals, they think for us and decide for us. An important question for me was how fast we are moving into the metaworld, and whether it will be able to replace the real tactile world for us. In March 2022 at the Dzyga Gallery were presented 16 paintings, a video work, and VR experience.
