In Dialogue
In her first solo show at Space 776, Dasha Bazanova’s oil paintings and ceramic sculptures engage with the theme of “alien” from various angles: the cultural alienation intrinsic to her Russian roots and her identity as an “alien” in the United States. She draws upon the 1970s, a period rich with alien conspiracy theories tying these themes to our present. The exhibition includes ceramic sculptures of Russian grandmothers, standing as symbols of endurance amid the aftermath of calamities and prompting contemplation on the legacy of alienation across generations. Bazanova elaborates here on the body of work in her show.
The show includes paintings and sculptures. Tell us first about the paintings.
Several of the paintings in the show depict scenes that are historic or prophetic, with aliens or spacecraft, and others are just landscapes. The paintings are mostly on rough boards, which helps bring them out from the flat plain and give them a dimension you can’t really see on Instagram. Then they are framed with ceramic frames that I design for each work, especially size-wise and color and subject-wise, and that brings it further out, so, for a painting, it becomes very three-dimensional. The painting process usually has an unpredictable outcome and is a meditative dialogue with the medium and myself. I hope they evoke a strong emotion from viewers who can find something they can relate to, not only through the imagery but also through my brushstroke and the use of different textures.
How do you see the relationship between these paintings and the ceramic sculptures?
I have been painting longer than I have been making sculptures. It’s a different practice in many ways. The paintings allow you to describe a whole setting a lot easier, rather than one distinct subject. So, they have different functions, but here, the ceramic frames also draw the two closer together. In terms of color themes, the sculptures and paintings in this show are very similar. However, there is a major difference between them. While the main inspiration for creating paintings is my personal emotions, like nostalgia, the sculpture-making process starts through the process, and later, the emotions reveal themselves.
Can you tell us more about what “alien” means in this show and about the sources you were looking at, including those from the 1970s?
Alien in this show is about both a person with ‘alien’ status in the US and a space alien. In the title of the show, both the words Alien and US (“U-S”) can be read in at least two ways and those different meanings, as well as “R-U-S,” appear in these pieces. Many of the space aliens in the show are engaged in activities like building Stonehenge, Easter Island, etc, which are now part of modern mythology.
The 1970s were a significant period for public interest in UFO sightings as well as abduction writing and alien builder theories. At that time, the New York painter and ufologist Budd Hopkins began publishing his books on alien abductions. Russian folklore also includes some stories of supernatural beings such as “domovoi” and “vodyanoy,” which are believed to inhabit the natural world, and their mystical qualities could be interpreted as extraterrestrial visitors similar to contemporary narratives of UFOs and aliens visiting Earth. On a personal level, it has become a topic of conversation with my mother lately, so, in a way, the idea of “aliens” helped me reunite with my homeland and my family, whom I haven’t seen in person for a long time.
The aliens and the little ceramic grandmas (that sit on the fragments of burnt wood at the gallery as if resting on the remains of some disaster) combine the past and the future into the present, and these figures both operate as self-portraits. Just as aliens are often depicted as beings from another world, the Grandma figures symbolize the “alien” within ourselves—the aspects of our identity that may feel foreign or out of place in a rapidly changing world. Besides, alien theories, overall, are fascinating. For instance, the speculative theory of the ancient astronaut—which proposes that extraterrestrial beings visited Earth in ancient times and influenced human civilization—reminds us of our need for interconnectedness with the universe.
Dasha Bazanova AliensRus at Space 776 37-39 Clinton St, New York, NY, 10002 Through March 31, 2024
About the artist: Dasha Bazanova was born in Arkhangelsk, Russia, right before the collapse of the Soviet Union. 2011, she received her master’s at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. In 2012, Bazanova moved to New York, where she earned an MFA at Long Island University (CW Post) in 2014. She currently lives and works in Bushwick/Ridgewood, NY. Her work was exhibited in New York galleries and museums such as the Painting Center, Lorimito, The Buggy Factory, GRIDSPACE, Islip Museum, and Steinberg Museum. She recently had solo exhibitions at the Spring Break Art Show / NYC 2022, and 2023 & a two-person show curated by Ambre Kelly and Andrew Gori at Spring Break / LA 2023, and the SpringBreak Secret show in NYC.