Tanya Chaika (born Moscow). Graduated from the Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE), School of Design, specialization “Photography in Fashion and Advertising”. Works with photography and performance art. Her method is based on observing natural cycles and changes in the states of individual elements of nature within them. According to the artist, personal communication and interaction with nature is important for her, during which she can feel like a part of the cycle. This feeling of the relationship between man and nature as a living force is what she would like to transmit through her works. Lives and works in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Publications:
HSE ART GALLERY , The Blueprint
Group exhibitions:
- 2020 – “Forest forest forest”. Exhibition of the Art Association “Shoots”. Voevodyno, Moscow region, Russia.
- 2020 – Online auction of Sample Gallery and HSE ART Gallery.
- 2020 – “Physicality outside the construct.” Gallery “Space”. Moscow, Russia.
- 2020 – Exhibition of the association Feu Rouge. Palace on the Yauza. Moscow, Russia.
- 2019 – Exhibition and Auction Sample х HSE ART Gallery. GUM, HSE ART GALLERY. Moscow, Russia.
- 2019 – “The starting point is the forest”. Exhibition of the Art Association “Shoots”. Bitsevsky forest. Moscow, Russia.
- 2019 – HSE ART AND DESIGN festival. Moscow City Museum. Moscow, Russia.
- 2018 – Design NEXT. Central House of Artists. Moscow, Russia.
- 2018 – Festival Mimesis. Space Aglomerat. Moscow, Russia.
All author's works
Series
The search for home, the return home is one of the four eternal themes in the Borges classification. The image of home is associated with a sense of stability, rootedness, and deliverance from loneliness. In times of transition, these important feelings can be lost, and trying to return to them proves to be a non-trivial task. Tatiana Finansova filmed her project in the village where the house built by her grandfather stands. Undergoing significant changes in her life, she tries to recover the lost sense of family, belonging to history and clan. The artist invites the viewer to join her on this journey, which, despite the strictly defined ending, leaves more questions than answers. This is how the author herself describes the series: “It is about finding a home at an emotionally difficult time in life, when one needs a point of calm and security. The visual language of the series underscores the fragility of the world around it, which is saturated with worry and is difficult to rely on. The road leads legitimately to the ultimate goal, home, but leaves the author and viewer outside, in a shaky darkness, with no certainty that home can actually be found.”
Flow in psychology is a state of absolute involvement and focus on one’s activities which has long been removed from the daily routine of many people around the world due to the pandemic. The essay “Flow” was filmed by Tanya Chaika during a time of self-isolation. Communication with society was limited, and those who lived close to the wilderness or had the opportunity to relocate chose dialogue with nature over human contact. Every day, Finansova would go out of the house into the forest and watch the seasons change, winter giving way to spring. Closeness to nature and careful observation helped to cope with a growing sense of loneliness. Synchronization with the cycles of nature smoothed the shock of sudden disruption to a familiar way of life. For the author, contemplation became an escape from the anxiety and uncertainty of the pandemic period: Finansova compared the pattern of changes in nature with changes in man, which means that a deep empathy with nature is a way to take a deeper look into oneself.
Series
In “The Way Home” Tanya Chaika fantasizes about returning to the bosom of nature. Urban life forces people to forget their connection to the flora and fauna, the laws and rhythms of life associated with regularity, tranquility and unsophisticated nature. Returning to them today is a radical gesture which allows us to rethink our place in the world, revealing both the origins of the animal and the absolute unpreparedness and vulnerability of the human body. Tanya Chaika’s series is composed of self-portraits, which play on the theme of reconnection and synchronization with the cycles of nature. The photographer’s body is embedded in the landscape, united with the elements of nature; consistently living through all four seasons, Finansova performs the work of returning to the conditional “home” of nature. She puts it this way: “In the cyclicity of natural phenomena lies a reminder that everything is born and everything dies in its allotted time, and man is no exception: this awareness of being part of the great natural circle of life helps one find a foothold in the big disturbing world.”
