Series: COVID Home (work in progress)
“Michal Tkachenko’s work considers how places of dwelling have been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of physical space and in how we think about home. Using upcycled scale-models, Tkachenko has created five COVID-19 quarantine dioramas presenting lived experiences during lockdown, and through the course of the pandemic. For some, home was or still is, a school, an office, or an over-crowded place of refuge. Others might have felt isolated in large houses, while some were confined to care homes, unable to see family or friends. The impacts of COVID-19 are nuanced and are experienced differently by each individual. Tkachenko’s detailed sculptures offer glimpses into imagined interior spaces, inviting viewers to reflect on the past three years.”
-Vanessa Black, Curator/Director, Seymour Art Gallery
Series: COVID Home
The effects of COVID on our places of dwelling transforms them into spaces we spend exceptional amounts of time as we move in and out of lockdown. Using donated scale-models, I consider how this experience differs for people (those living alone, those living in small dwellings, those living with family or multiple people) and how it affects us in both similar and different ways.
The impact of the pandemic plays differently for various age groups, geographic regions and economic divisions of society. For some, home is now a school, an office, and an over-crowded place of refuge from the virus. Others live alone in large houses isolated and unable to invite anyone in. A care home becomes a prison keeping the occupant locked in and their family locked out. I explore the many symbols of the pandemic alongside ways our dwellings confine and free us, giving each piece an identifiable narrative.
