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This is the project about migration and borders, belonging and alienation, statelessness and trauma. As part of The Sea is the Limit project I made a series of eight printed felt blankets that reflect on the experience of being a migrant. The blankets are conceived as an interactive installation, where the participants are invited to wear the blankets in the exhibition space as an act of sharing and empathy. Picture: Anthony Chappel-Ross
Varvara Keidan Shavrova is a visual artist, curator, educator and researcher. Born in the USSR, she lives and works between London, Dublin and Berlin. She studied at the Moscow State University of Printing Arts, received her MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has been awarded Arts & Humanities Research Council Studentship by London Arts & Humanities Partnership, to conduct her practice-based PhD at the Royal College of Art in London.
She has exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Gallery of Photography Ireland, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Espacio Cultural El Tanque, Tenerife.Shavrova curated international visual arts projects, including The Sea is the Limit at York Art Gallery (2018) and Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar (2019), and co-curated Beijing Map Games: Dynamics of Change , an international art and architecture exhibition in Beijing (China), Birmingham (UK) and Terni (Italy).
She is the recipient of the National Lottery Arts Council of England Project Awards (2019-2020 and 2020-2021), the Arts Council Ireland Visual Arts Bursary Award (2021), and the Prince’s Trust Individual Artist’s Award, among others. Her work is included in a number of public and private collections worldwide, including at the Department of the Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland, at the Office of Public Works art collection in Dublin, at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation collection in County Mayo, and at the Museum of the History of St.Petersburg in Russia. Shavrova is represented by Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London.
[…] Varvara Keiden Shavrova spoke to us from Berlin in late August. She reported improvement from the time she arrived in early April of this year during the height of the lockdown. Whereas the city was closed off and deserted and people seemed scared, now, she says, the city has opened up with admission to museums and galleries once more allowed and cafes and restaurants brimming with guests once more. In terms of her artistic practice, the lockdown slowed her pace considerably. Despite having ample time to work, there was a void that she – like many artists – did not find conducive to creating art. In the month before we spoke, things had just begun to pick up with some shows coming up and she has begun working again in some small ways, examining surveillance as it relates to flight. To hear more about her work, including a knitted parachute she’s collaborating on, listen to the complete interview. […]
[…] Varvara Keiden Shavrova spoke to us from Berlin in late August. She reported improvement from the time she arrived in early April of this year during the height of the lockdown. Whereas the city was closed off and deserted and people seemed scared, now, she says, the city has opened up with admission to museums and galleries once more allowed and cafes and restaurants brimming with guests once more. In terms of her artistic practice, the lockdown slowed her pace considerably. Despite having ample time to work, there was a void that she – like many artists – did not find conducive to creating art. In the month before we spoke, things had just begun to pick up with some shows coming up and she has begun working again in some small ways, examining surveillance as it relates to flight. To hear more about her work, including a knitted parachute she’s collaborating on, listen to the complete interview. […]