NADA
NADA New York 2026
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Polina Osipova, A device for flying to the ancestral stars II (Kolyma), 2026
Archival family photographs on textile, watercolour, metal studs, canvas, graphite pencil, oak wood
79 × 60 inches
Edition 0

$16,000

The sculpture by Polina Osipova draws on the Chuvash belief that ancestors exist as stars, a worldview later overshadowed by the Soviet narrative of space conquest. Reclaiming this imagery, the artist transforms childhood fantasies of space travel into a symbolic return to her roots. The wings, reimagined as the peresti, a mythological mediator between humans and gods, appear rusted like remnants of the post Soviet past and are layered with family archival photographs, becoming a means of reconnecting with her Indigenous identity and its historically suppressed culture.