The idea for Black Milk emerged during the power outages in Kyiv in the winter of 2022–2023. Walking through the city in complete darkness, without a single streetlight, I was struck by the unfamiliar experience of a city deprived of light. It was during this time that the word Nigredo resurfaced from the depths of my memory.

Nigredo, Latin for “blackness,” is a concept in alchemy associated with decomposition, dissolution, and the symbolic death of matter. It represents a state of darkness and disintegration that precedes transformation and renewal.

Drawing on the concept of Nigredo, the series explores parallels between the alchemical process and the experiences of war in Ukraine.

Each sculpture becomes an archive of this period, preserving traces of deformation, tension, and transformation. Black matter is approached not as the absence of light, but as a material state that absorbs and accumulates experience.

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Series of wall sculptures, 2022–2025

Plaster, acrylic plaster, construction mesh,wood, spray paint.

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