10 Questions with Alice Zakharenko

Alice Zakharenko (b. 2000, New York City, USA) is a London-based interdisciplinary artist, who works in print media, papermaking, painting and drawing. Alice received her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022 and her MA in Print at the Royal College of Art in 2023. She has been awarded the Ochre Print Studio Residency Award (2024) and has been shortlisted for the John Purcell Paper Prize at the Ochre Summer Exhibition 2024. Zakharenko has co-curated shows such a Experiential Play at Fine Liquids Gallery, Aesthetics of Bliss at 67 York Street, and Assembly at St. Giles Church Crypt. A few notable group exhibitions she has been a part of: 198th Annual Exhibition at Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Watercolour Society Open 2024 at Bankside Gallery, Dimensions at Gallerie V, Anonymous Drawings 2024 at Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Spring Show at AKA Contemporary, Royal Watercolour Society Open 2024 at Bankside Gallery, Tokens at Feelium Gallery & Studios, Two Fold at Southwark Park Galleries, Summer Exhibition 2023 at The Green & Stone Gallery, 4 Shows. 1 Exhibition at John David Mooney Foundation in Chicago, USA. She has been previously published in t’ART Magazine (2023) and The Pluralist (2023).

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Exploring the temporal qualities of repetition and difference, Zakharenko’s bodies of work explore memory, movement, rhythm, time and identity. She investigates how individuals measure time through their bodies and in the environment without relying on the technologies they have invented. By elevating the ordinary to the realm of the extraordinary, her work challenges viewers to reconsider their perceptions of everyday life. Through the act of repetition, she not only celebrates the beauty found in the mundane but also prompts contemplation on the cyclical nature of human existence.

Zakharenko’s works echo pages of a diary. She translates thoughts of seemingly unnecessary everyday repetitions into focused and deliberate movements. She examines motifs encountered during moments of leisure and contemplation through lithino-- lithography on linoleum-- and monoprint, drawings, painting, and embroidery. With her prints, she primarily works on handmade paper recycled from my worn clothes, such as denim and bedsheets. From rhythmic patterns, observed in systems of transportation, to the subtle nuances of routine walks, decorative adornments, and fleeting natural phenomena, each piece becomes a documentation of time and memories that come and go gracefully and often inconspicuously.

La-la-la, lithino on south bank smooth paper and embroidery floss, 50.6 x 39.6 cm, 2024 © Alice Zakharenko

INTERVIEW

Please introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you, and when did you first get interested in visual arts?

Hello, everyone. I'm Alice Zakharenko, a multidisciplinary American artist based in London. Since I was a kid, I have been a painter, or at least at the temperament of one. Looking back at baby photos, there were unsuspecting murals all over our apartment walls while we were still living in NYC. Besides my family, art was and continues to be a constant part of my life and a pastime that I could refer back to whenever I had downtime.

You grew up in New York City before moving to London, where you currently live and work. How did these two cities influence your artistic journey?

I was born in NYC but moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when I was around five. It was an interesting time growing up because it seemed like I was always busy as a kid, and I definitely have an overactive imagination (and still do to this day). I lived in the clouds and always took to drawing or painting. I'm grateful my parents were supportive of me to encourage this habit and especially to push me in my early stages of experimenting. Eventually, I moved to Chicago to attend university, where my practice started to find its feet. It was not until I moved to London that I was able to solidly know what my practice is based on: us. Through the many different cities I've lived through, regardless of how brief it seems, I found that there are many similarities in how we reference or even store our identities and histories on the surface of building facades, stained glass panels, epithets, graveyards, road signs, etc. These moments are what intrigue me, as well as the moments we spend yearning for what's next and seeing how we occupy our time before we forget it. Cities are a great source of inspiration, but the people even more.

Chasing my tail, pencil on handmade cotton paper, 30x44 cm, 2024 © Alice Zakharenko

Knockers, pencil on handmade cotton paper, 30x46 cm, 2024 © Alice Zakharenko

How did your time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later the Royal College of Art shape your approach to printmaking and art? Were there any pivotal moments during your studies that have stayed with you?

A critical moment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was discovering new and unexplored mediums at once. The multidisciplinary practice the university encourages continues to influence the way I approach and create work. SAIC encourages multidisciplinary ideas and techniques, never limiting you in what you can make (besides the financial and space constraints). While at SAIC, I learned the basic principles for the mediums I use to this day, and at the Royal College of Art (RCA), I learned how to think about my handmade-focused practice in more digital terms or reconsider the applications of digital technologies. There was a lot of trial & error and, honestly, frustrating moments. However, without the peers and friends that I met during my year, I would've struggled more than I did. I'm grateful to have met the people there and continue to meet to this day. These collaborations are integral in pushing me to think outside the box.

You work with various mediums, from lithography and linoleum prints to embroidery and handmade paper. Could you tell us more about how you choose which medium to use for a particular piece and how each medium impacts the message you're trying to convey?

Most of the time, I bounce from one medium to another because I've exhausted the possibilities I've had at the time and need a change. There isn't really any rhyme or reason why certain ideas are made with a specific medium. Sometimes, I just really want to get back to a different surface, such as lithino (lithography on lino), because I miss the process or feel as though the materials I would use would flow better with one idea I have in mind than the other. I think the best way to equate this is being multilingual. There are times when I want to speak in this language because it flows better, or at least it's effortless to think and speak in this particular language than the others in this particular period of time. At the end of the day, what matters is I learned something new about the process and challenged myself.

I swear I can sing, gouache on handmade denim paper, 43x53 cm (framed), 2024 © Alice Zakharenko

Your work involves repetition and cyclical patterns that relate to time, memory, and identity. Can you describe your creative process when working on a new piece?

My creative process often begins with a novel and/or walking. When I walk around the city, whether at home or someplace different, I see a pattern on a building walking to my next destination, and oftentimes, I become intrigued by that pattern. I break it down into parts to see how a pattern is constructed, but then I'm interested in creating a somewhat animated movement within these actions, too. I break down that pattern in moving increments to create a working sequence for a new piece. In other instances, I have a phrase stuck in my head like "Where the wind blows", and I try to interpret a sequence from that phrase or mimic what it looks like when the grass is blown by the wind, for example. I try to stick to phrases and patterns that I find in my daily routines. These symbols that I use are ones we often take for granted. These interest me the most partly because as complex as we are emotionally and psychologically, we also arevery simple creatures where marking our existence is the only way we can indicate to other people we exist here and now.

You make your own paper using recycled materials like denim and bedsheets. What inspired you to adopt this sustainable practice, and how does the materiality of the paper contribute to the overall narrative of your work?

I learned papermaking through Andrea Peterson during my last year at SAIC. Through her mentorship, I began to thinkabout how we could truly incorporate our own materials and histories into the entire art-making process. I mean, how cool is it to paint on a pair of jeans you worked in almost every day for the past four years? By recycling my jeans and bedsheets, I'm able to transform the history of one item that provided me comfort and shelter to another item where I can tell a different story, one of our shared history together. There's also this element of involvement with my work as well. I feel more connected to how I make and what I make when I know where the paper or other materials come from. Not to mention, I appreciate the value of the materials more knowing how long it takes and what type of labour it takes to produce these pieces.

Memory and time are recurring themes in your art. How do you approach these abstract concepts and bring them into a tangible form through your prints and drawings?

There was a defining moment that struck me from "I Who Have Never Known Men" by Jacquline Harpman that influenced how I describe my work. Harpman investigates the unnamed protagonist's evolving relationship with her sense of time by tracking her heartbeats and eventually measuring time with other parts of her body. Keeping with the notion of measuring time through heartbeats and footsteps, I analyse the nuances of time in our everyday life: how we flaunt it, hoard it, flounder it. I was heavily inspired by this portion of her novel because it encapsulated everything I was trying to achieve. How do we keep time without a watch to tell us? How do we spend that time while we're not doing anything? I guess I try to combat the stresses of a fast life that we live now, always rushing from place to place and barely catching our breath.

Your work often revolves around mundane moments of leisure and routine. What inspires you to focus on these seemingly insignificant details, and how do you maintain a sense of wonder when creating art from everyday life?

Our everyday lives are always filled with wonder and exquisite moments, but we must have a closer examination of what constitutes these instances as such. I'm quite tired of the idea of "chasing after extraordinary moments in our lives' oressentially building up moments where we have to anticipate this wonderfully extravagant moment in time only just to feel a little disappointed it didn't go to plan or expectation. Pivoting away from that mindset, my work priorities are becoming more present and appreciative of the present moment without the need to chase after grandeur. How can we enjoy our lives no matter how mundane they seem if we keep chasing after expectations that come and go in a second? How do we find contentment with what we have? Everything around us is strange and wonderful or, frankly, downright bizarre.

Stuff it, eat it, love it, coloured pencil and gouache on handmade cotton paper, 40x40 cm, 2023 © Alice Zakharenko

When in doubt blame the moon © Alice Zakharenko

You've participated in numerous exhibitions and received important prizes. What challenges have you faced along the way, and how have these achievements influenced your trajectory as an artist?

The biggest challenge is trying to get your foot in the door where nobody knows you or even cares about you and your work. I have to prove to myself and others that "Yes, my work is important, just as important as the next person who's here" and adopt the attitude that I do have something to say and it's important I share it. It helps when you create a reallyamazing group of supporters around you, along with other artists and writers you admire and help along the way. I still feel that I need to continue to prove myself and have this expectation to refine my ideas, but that's what pushes me to do better. I would say the achievements that I have so far are just the beginning of what I want to accomplish next. It adds fuel to my fire, so to speak. I had this orchestra professor when I was growing up who gave me advice that I'll never forget: "When you practise, you'll always have something to improve in your playing, and that's how you become a much better musician. Otherwise, why practise if you think you're already the best?". His advice was always humbling, to be fair, but it pushed me to think critically about what I could do to improve my practice and not be so stagnant.

Lastly, what's next for you in your artistic journey? Are there any upcoming projects or exhibitions you're particularly excited about, and do you have any new directions you're planning to explore in your work?

I have a few shows up at the moment, including Gallerie V in Cambridge, The Dispensary Gallery x Hypha Studios in Wrexham and Anonymous Drawings 2024 in Berlin. I'm finishing up my residency at Ochre Print Studio, but I'msearching for a way to expand my work on a bigger surface and push myself to work outside of the abstract landscape that I've made myself very comfortable in. At the end of the day, I'm always looking forward to catching new phrases and patterns in my ever-changing routine and enjoying the present moment.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.

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