In her practice, Olesya Frich addresses the specifics of how the natural and the social interact within landscapes, as well as the concept of “material memory”. A special focus is placed on exploring the Urals, where the artist was born and works.
An important practice in her research and project development is walking, where the walking itself becomes both a medium and a trigger for new insights. Through the regular study of territories, various artifacts are collected, which, acting as agents of places and events, are transformed into art.
Her chosen techniques are combined and oriented toward a more complete revelation of the concept. These can encompass various objects, paintings, graphics, fabric work, photography, and the book format.
Conservation (series). 2020-21
This project became a method for the artistic preservation of the indexical trace of today’s reality. The works incorporate materials collected by the artist in 2020-21 from sites of man-made incidents in the Urals:
– soil, stones, and plant remains from technological spills at non-mothballed copper mines and an abandoned enterprise;
– spilled fuel oil from an old village boiler house;
– coal from forest fires.
All the found artifacts are preserved in epoxy resin molds, which is itself a product of the chemical industry. The objects become eternal capsules that store the traces of one of the many anthropogenic factors.