All the current projects I am working with are tied up with the idea of deep alienation to the surrounding space. With the new series “Reductio Ad Absurdum” I also want to question the phantom reality we tend to create as a form of escapism from the real world. I chose kitsch and storytelling as the methods which I think are the most sonorous and understandable for a contemporary viewer.

I present two short etudes united by a fictional character – a man who creates different stories in order to enrich his life with real feelings and hide from synthetic emotions offered by modern society. He lives on the edge of two different realities – today’s sober existence and pleasant fake illusion, where he dives in moments of loneliness.

The very first etude “My Venus” is an interpretation of the famous myth about Pygmalion and his statue Galatea. The Venus is an evanescent image in daily life, he created a phantom to cling to the romantic delusion of love.

The second etude “Restless day” is a fake adventure, a fantasy in the middle of a colorless routine day. The personage reads a boring book and dreams up fleeting amusements to fill the natural need to experience new emotions.

Valeriia Radko, Ukrainian photographer