Darya Demidenko impressed us with the breadth of her curiosity and creativity. Darya is attentive to art history--she studies what she sees and makes work that converses with other texts. The collages included here are a testament to her drive towards concept and a concrete juxtaposition of architecture and the human (often female) form. We are so thrilled that Darya is also the editorial assistant for Angime’s visual component. 

How did the lockdown impact your practice? Were there ways that you faced limitations that you can apply to future practice?

Quarantine and, especially, being locked-down in my hometown, which is a relatively small city, have helped me to start drawing after a long period of abstaining. Before, I didn’t draw often because I was demotivated by how long it takes to complete one single artwork (especially oil on canvas). But during quarantine, due to the limited availability of materials and limited movement, I began to draw small sketches using the materials I had at home, pencil on white printing paper. After this discovery, I started to work with paper more and got rid of the stereotype that canvas is used for serious art pieces, Another small victory during this time is that I started a page where I post my art (https://www.instagram.com/voron.yo/).

In what way does your art engage with place-- country, city, landscape, architecture, home?

I usually get an impulse of creativity after visiting a place that I’ve never been before. I study the place in detail and notice small, but impressive, things that I later reproduce in drawings. Sometimes an object or a concept catches me so much that I write it down in a list of the things that I must draw. Each new artwork makes an observer experience emotions that are, in a way, similar to visiting a new place. Art is always a relocation of some kind. 

What feeds your work or what spurs you the most to work?

It is important to me to have a clear understanding that the creative process is not like a person who waits for you to come and impatiently hurries you. A single artist’s presence in the creative sphere does not add to or cut down the essence of what art is; I find this beautiful. Understanding that I have no serious responsibility makes me feel the freedom that is necessary to create with no constraints. All in all, what I find most important is getting rid of fixed expectations, like of quality or timing. I believe I should create artwork only when I feel the urge to memorize some emotion or object.