Veronika Ivashkevich

With the permission of a participant in the WOK residency programme: Process-ing Change. An Artistic and Research Accompaniment, we take a look at her notes — documentation of her personal process of experiencing change.

The beginning, May-June, was a period of development as I was selected for the WOK residency and invited to participate in a project that interested me. I think that’s when I became convinced of the validity of my strategy of persevering in my work, doing what I do best and continuing to develop despite obstacles. During this time, I completed several works that I consider to be the best I have produced thus far. At the same time, I was preparing for an exhibition, or rather its second part, in which I tried to correct the shortcomings of the first part, which took place in early May. The preparation process was extremely important; thanks to which, I learned a lot and developed professionally. As part of this exhibition, an interview was planned, which is always a good exercise in talking about oneself and one’s practice.

My process developed most during the meetings with Jakub Gawkowski (Kuba). He immediately gained my trust and I was honest with him, being transparent about what I thought, although later, after the first meeting, I was a little worried. These doubts disappeared when we met again. Kuba is certainly an intelligent and sensitive person and curator with whom I found it easy to connect.

Kuba helped me to shape my own image at the current stage, framing it with a textual layer and starting work on the website. He also wrote a recommendation for the residency I was interested in, reviewed the application, and made professional corrections. Another key process was creating my own website with Liubov Vasileva. I realised how important it is for me to evaluate my own projects over time — many things became  clear that are not visible from a close distance. In my practice, I find that a two-year gap is a useful period. While working on the website, I was reminded of the benefits of interacting with others. I have often consulted friends on various issues and literally every piece of advice and opinion has influenced me and brought about change. Now I am at the final stage where almost everything is finished. Working with the visual component has helped me to organise many nuances, again, regarding my representation and the processes behind the creation of my projects.

I am very grateful for this experience, the financial support, the attention and the sense of care. I have become convinced that I will always do what represents me. This is important to me right now: to know that there is a core that will always allow me to do something that reflects me. It’s a kind of double sense of certainty that this work will happen, but also of surprise at the results. There is determination and necessity, but also room for the unexpected. In a way I really like the combination of these emotions. It’s not that I know the result will be the best, I just know it will reflect me. It means there is something stable within me. There is something that has always been with me. I meet myself through creation and that is always important. You have to risk revealing yourself in order to become more real and human even if the price is high. To engage in the creative process is to participate in the adventure of freedom — with the acceptance that the failures will count ten times more than the successes. However, I think that the rigour towards the artists strengthens their convictions and pushes them beyond the mastery they thought they already had in their art.