Katerina schildert de dingen die ze nog niet begrijpt
"My artistic practice is a tool for self-recognition"
Katerina studies Fine Art at AKI ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design and is building her life-sized installation brushstroke by brushstroke. She makes every element herself. Each surface is a painting, yet together they form a walk-in environment. A set that only aligns from one exact viewpoint, and shifts the moment you move around it. That play with perspective is exactly what she looks for.
Queerness, roots, body, memory
Katerina is a painter from Cyprus with Russian roots as well. Those layers of identity sometimes clash, just like her ideas about her body, and her queerness. Painting is her way of researching these uncertainties. "My artistic practice is really a tool for self-recognition," she says. By painting, she can approach parts of herself she does not yet fully understand.
On her desk lies a sketch for her final work: a parent figure facing a child figure. A confrontation, almost theatrical. She wants to lift this drawn scene off the paper. It becomes a three-dimensional installation, allowing visitors to discover a new angle each time. The image is built up and instantly taken apart again.
"I get a lot of joy from sharing these personal elements"
A personal installation that creates space for others
Her work grows from memories, family, embodiment. Yet it never becomes hers alone. As visitors move around the piece, it changes. And sometimes they recognise something of themselves in it. ‘I get a lot of joy from sharing these personal elements,’ she says. Especially when people share their own stories with her. For Katerina, that moment of connection is the real highlight of being an artist.
What the programme has given her
Her exploration of new ways of painting has only just begun, she says. That is why she hopes to continue into a master’s programme. She is looking for a place where she can build on what she found at AKI: studios, workshops, lecturers and fellow students who think along with her. And the future? Exciting. Unpredictable. But also full of promise. ‘Life will probably show me every corner of the room. Bring it on.’