31 August 2017 — 15 October 2017

From September 2 to October 15, 2017, British artist and filmmaker Vicki Thornton will be the new resident at IZOLYATSIA, as part of the British Council SWAP: UK / Ukraine programme.

Vicki Thornton works in the field of visual art. Her work combines documentary and fiction filmmaking approaches to examine relationships between place, memory, performance and identity. Recent film presentations include Czech Republic; PÖFF Black Nights, Tallinn, Estonia; DOKLeipzig, Germany; Cambridge Film Festival, UK; Alchemy Moving Image Festival, Scotland; and Clermont-Ferrand, France. Graduating from the Royal College of Art, London in 2011, she is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at Queen Mary, University of London.

During her residency at IZOLYATSIA, Vicki will work on new video works. On September 13, at 7 PM, the IZONE Creative Community will host Vicki’s artist talk, as part of the Art Wednesday project by IZOLYATSIA.

Vicki Thornton’s residency is made possible within the framework of the SWAP: UK / Ukraine Artist Residency Programme co-organised by the British Council Ukraine and Liverpool Biennial. The programme aims to connect artists from Ukraine and the UK and support their professional development and internationalisation.

Vicki Thornton will be the first resident of the new space created by IZOLYATSIA exclusively for AIR programme participants.

Residency of Vicki Thornton resulted in two artistic works — Three States of Being and Symfoniya.

The artist herself in an interview with ArtUkraine says, that Kyiv, in which she had to work, was felt for her as an incomprehensible but friendly space: “Kyiv gave me a feeling of speed, openness of space and freedom of action: everything that I did as an artist was accepted. And the most amazing thing was that people really care about you. All my works are the result of the care and cooperation of many unfamiliar for me people."

Her works, created during her Residency, Vicki presented at collective exhibition of the SWAP UK/Ukraine residencies participants in YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, Ukraine, from March 16 to April 15, 2018.

Three States of Being (2018) is based on a broken advertising lightbox located at the junction of streets in Kyiv, Ukraine. The real lightbox contained a yellowing, blank poster which had slipped down inside its frame, almost like a fallen stage curtain. An advertisement to nothing, to unknown desires and aspirations, or a performance abandoned halfway through.

 In Three States of Being, however, a gold foil sheet – commonly known in English as a “space blanket”, “trauma blanket” or “survival blanket” – stands in place of the poster and an electronic sequencer guides the viewer through three different phases: from constantly “on”, through breaking down, to finally, a more regulated “techno-like” pulse. The lightbox is in perpetual flux, trapped between these states: perhaps implying a wider movement from a fixed and known past, through a place of instability and finally, to a more bodily and “authentic” future?

Symfoniya is a short film that consists of two combined videos - first (on the left of the screen), the image of people who make physical exercises at outdoor gym in Hidropark (Kyiv, Ukraine), and the second one shows a man who is playing trumpet with invisible for us orchestra in front of him; this serves as the soundtrack to the whole work and creates the atmosphere.

Learn more about Vicki Thornton's projects at her website.