Olga Vorobyova

Women are endowed with enormous cultural authority: for example, the patrons of animals and plants are usually goddesses and nymphs, their image is associated with the greatness and power of nature. At the same time, the social status of women and stereotypical perception of their role in modern society often remain unenviable. Reflecting on this paradox, Olga Vorobyova turns to portraits of Crimean women. She places representatives of different generations in the context of wild nature, comparing its freedom and exuberance with society’s conservative traditions and gender stereotypes. In provincial towns, idealism and ambition are often shattered by lack of opportunity and dogmatism; integration into society requires submission. The project is biographical: Vorobyova photographs residents of her hometown of Primorsky, which she left as a teenager. For her, it is an attempt to address the past, to reflect on her fate, and to imagine what her life would have been like if she herself had stayed in Crimea.

People always put their hopes for change and project their expectations and anxieties on the younger generation, the ones who will inherit the consequences of today’s political, economic and ecological decisions. In the project “Coast Kids” Olga Vorobyova creates a collective portrait of Crimean youth. The artist, who moved from Crimea as a teenager, returns to her homeland to look at the faces of those who are now growing up in a suspended political situation, an irreversibly deteriorating environment, and a troubled economy. Vorobyova is interested in the search for a fundamental beginning that would bring together representatives of different generations growing up in the same territory. Is there something unchanging, independent of circumstances, at the core of children’s experience, something that can be crystallized into pure human experience? According to Vorobyova, it is this “spark” of humanity, which photography helps to reveal that can become the basis for the society of the future.