Kateryna Seheda

Visual artist

ResidencyArt See Ocean, Trosa, Sweden

Hosting periodAutumn 2022

Kateryna Seheda is a multidisciplinary artist from Ukraine.

The basis of Seheda’s work is researching the nature of violence, both in the context of her own life and in relation to the political state of her birthplace, Ukraine, through focusing on the unity of mental and physical states.

Sehada’s home, Crimea, was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014, an experience of vulnerability, exposure and loss, both of her state and her identity. Thus the main focus of her creative endeavours has been to explore humankind’s ability to resist all sorts of violence.

She uses various mediums, including painting, textiles and ceramics, and experiments with the idea of corporeality and intrauterine development. For this she uses textile as the most fitting material: with its flexibility and elasticity, it is reminiscent of human skin and the body. In painting she contemplates the evolution of human life and, through colour spots, explores her own inner processes. With clay, she encloses ideas and thoughts in the shapes she moulds. This combination of techniques and artistic approaches allows her to create the desired effect of materiality and tactility.

Sehada states: “all my artistic themes are bound by one topic – a wistful longing for freedom and the desire to get rid of illness, annexation and gruesome childhood memories.”

Kateryna Seheda is an ARTISTS at RISK (AR)-UNESCO Resident at Art See Ocean in Västerljung, Sweden, with the support of the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund and the UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals.