Water level

2023-2024

embroidery on dyed fabric, watercolor drawings on paper

I started measuring the water level in my childhood.
The DniproHES is the largest and oldest dam in the cascade of Dnipro reservoirs. In
Zaporizhzhia, it also serves as a bridge connecting the two banks of the artist's hometown.
Each time locals cross this route, they briefly pause their gaze on the water level at the dam,
registering its stability. This action is automatic, as unnoticed as breathing or blinking. From
childhood, every resident of Zaporizhzhia knows what would happen if the dam were to
break: a massive wave, starting from the very stars, would engulf the entire city.
As a child, repeatedly passing by the DniproHES, I would sketch the water level—a
schematic line whose stability equated to a sense of safety. In the summer of 2023, after the
destruction of the Kakhovka HPP , I arrived in Zaporizhzhia and noticed that the water, which
had always been a part of this landscape, had disappeared. For me, this waterline became
synonymous with the feeling of the present—fluid, unstable, ever-changing. Something that
could vanish at any moment.