While having been educated in jewellery design, I can hardly call myself a jeweller. This medium can no longer encompass my creative aspirations and ideas. Nevertheless, there are several things I still find appealing and inevitable for myself that are closely linked to jewellery: 3-dimensional sculptural shapes and its close connection to the human body.

In my work, I explore the edge between 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional forms by constructing voluminous shapes out of flat surfaces, or creating an illusion of flat being sculptural, or just by juxtaposing these two opposites. The shapes I tend to work with could be described as the intersection between vegetation and human body, sometimes resembling those captured by photographer Karl Blossfeldt. Currently I am working on a painting series, but moving into sculpture-installation and new media.

This particular experimentation with shapes is essential for me due to my interest in digital technologies and their enormous potential for biomimicry: decoding natural processes and algorithms and applying them to create organic shapes that are computer-generated, and thus man-made. It seems like even the most common rigid phalos-shaped skyscrapers are not going to be common in the future due to new digital technics of generation and production of buildings. It means, being surrounded by shapes that are much more appealling to human beings – both on physical and psychological levels.

For this reason, I am relentlessly exploring what the newest digital technologies and new media can bring to my own artistic practice. My projects made during the past 2 years were all done with application of 3d-softwares and digital methods of fabrication. Nevertheless, the aim is never to show off the technological aspect. The viewer can hardly realise that a precise use of technological advances made the realization of my work possible. I believe that the highest possible invisibility combined with efficiency is the next step in application of technologies to contemporary art and life. The means are not magic or the end, but simply the tools that create new possibilities.

The residency will be a wonderful opportunity as a newcomer to Canada to immerse in the artistic community of Toronto and dive into my practice, pushing myself in a new, more desirable direction. During the residency, I will create an interactive installation that encourages the viewer to be engaged and play with the artwork, especially with its ability to generate and animate shapes and patterns. Thus, it will be a continuation of my personal developing approach to forms. The work is going to have a playful mood and the natural settings of residency should be an ideal place for the search of shapes and colours.

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Nadya Fedotova is a multidisciplinary artist, interested in applying digital technologies to her art and deign practice. She holds a BA from Central Saint Martins and is currently living and working in Toronto.