ARTISTS STATEMENT
My practice examines the virtual as an “emotional space” as an intersection of human perception and digital environments. Inspired by the works of Marjan Moghaddam and Lu Yang, who challenge perceptions of non-binary bodies in digital realms, I explore the experience of the female body in the tension between physical and virtual experiences. By integrating creative coding, generative processes, and augmented reality, I aim to uncover the latent materiality of ‘life’ in digital spaces. By deconstructing and reassembling digitally sculpted and physically modeled objects, I seek to bridge the sensory gap between the human body and the multiverse of digital spaces, asking the audiences to reflect on worlds shaped by algorithms. Through these fictional worlds, I aim to return the digital multiverse to a visceral, human perception language. Drawing from posthuman studies, phenomenology, and virtual and generative art, these sculptural series examine how digital technologies blur boundaries between physical and virtual selves, informed by critical frameworks like Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory and Rosi Braidotti’s posthuman subjectivity. The artworks interrogate the evolving notions of care, nourishment, and creation, where algorithms, machines, and synthetic systems may act as surrogates or extensions of the maternal body. By reimagining motherhood as a site of hybrid possibilities, the works reflect on artificial breastfeeding, distributed nurturing, and the intimate merging of organic and computational processes, offering a critical lens on the future of human reproduction and connection.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Oksana Kryzhanivska (b. Lutsk, Ukraine) is a practicing artist and, since 2023, a researcher at UW Milwaukee, who believes that art has the capacity to shape the technological vision. Joining the artist community in Milwaukee, Kryzhanivska aims to spread digital literacy in the arts. Oksana began exploring art at the intersection of traditional media and digital technologies in late Y2K, merging 3D modeling, fabrication, electronics, and creative coding. Her works explore the interplay of female bodies and technologies, questioning human sensory relationships in a tech-driven era while speculating on the virtual universes, the evolution of digital bodies, place-making, and presence. The artist holds a Ph.D. in Computational Media and Design (2018) and a Master of Fine Arts (2011) in sculpture from the University of Calgary, where the scholarly background at the intersection of technology and art continues to inform Oksana’s artistic practice. The artist’s interactive art installations, sculptures, and screen-based works have been exhibited globally, including Kulturzentrum Faust (Germany), Beakerhead Festival (Canada), ACM Multimedia (Australia), ISEA (Canada, Australia), Ukraine Gallery (Decentraland), MetaHistory: Museum of War (Decentraland), Refraction Festival (NYC), NAC 2023 (New Art City, NYC), Pavilion 04 Arsenale Nord (Venice), and Ars Electronica (Austria).
© Oksana Kryzhanivska