Artist Statement

The search for Katya Grokhovsky's own narrative and "home" through the female migrant body is a persistent idea in her multidisciplinary practice. Profound sense of displacement pervades her creative thought process and she often utilizes her own body as a point of departure and frequently as the only instrument at her disposal. Acting as a transcendental device, the body is a tool in various mediums, such as performance and video, photography, sculpture, installation, drawing, painting and writing.

She relentlessly investigates the violent act of separation from one culture and frustrating necessary attempt to belong to another. Often mesmerized by the future promise of yet another place to conquer, she becomes conscious of the duality of the mind and body in the process. Whilst the mind clearly follows instructions to build a better stable secure life, the body wildly suppresses the sensory memory of a place once native. The liminal space between being there and being here becomes full of tense emptiness and possibilities. Within this space, themes of endurance, time, identity and gender constructions are explored through mining her own experience of life as a woman in the East and West under different political regimes. Post-performance, post-eventual residue and ephemera is often exhibited and in itself re-constructed as evidential presence of the fictional or factual event, once staged.

Artist Biography

Ukrainian born, Australian - bred interdisciplinary artist Katya Grokhovsky currently lives and works in New York, USA and Melbourne, Australia. She has an MFA in Sculpture (2011) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA, a BFA in Painting (2007) from Victorian College of the Arts, Australia and a BA (Honours, 2000) in Fashion from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia.

Grokhovsky is a recipient of many awards including Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart Grant (2013), NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists (2012), Freedman Traveling Scholarship for Emerging Artists, NAVA (National Association for The Visual Arts, Australia) (2007), and many others. She has participated in residencies at Santa Fe Art Institute, NM (2012), ChaNorth residency, NY (2012), chashama space to create residency, NY (2012), Wonderwomen, gaia studio residency, NJ (2012), Watermill Center International Summer Residency, NY (2011), PAF(performing arts forum) residency, France (2008) and many more.

Her work has been shown in numerous venues nationally and internationally including exhibitions and performances in New York, Chicago, Jersey city, Santa Fe, Rotterdam, Berlin, Melbourne and Sydney.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.