A Planet on A Pin

Voloshyn Gallery is pleased to present A Planet on A Pin, a group exhibition curated by

Aleksei Borisionok, featuring works by Veronika Hapchenko, Kateryna Lysovenko, Sana

Shahmuradova Tanska, Fedir Tetyanych, Lesia Vasylchenko and Nina Hartmann.

The exhibition title derives from the early film by prominent Soviet Ukrainian director Felix

Sobolev. The film “Dawn of Destruction” (1965) refers to the sensibilities of the cold war with

its nuclear anxiety, originating in the dread of the Second world war. In his slightly high-flown,

yet visually captivating essay-film, Sobolev unfolds the story of the unknown planet which

was destroyed by internal contradictions that led to its annihilation. Blown into thousands of

fragments the planet becomes a constellation of multiple meteors and with the help of poetic means they become the bodies of partisans – they bear the hope of life in the form of

antifascist planetary urgency. Now, the weight of the planet is even heavier – the internal

contradictions are tearing her apart. With lands turned into the aggravations of destruction –

as for instance in Ukraine, but also in many other geographies, we see ongoing immanent

damage – to bodies, environments and planets.

Felix Sobolev is well-known for making one of the solid attempts to visualize Volodymyr

Vernadsky’s model of noosphere in his film “Biosphere! Time to Apprehend” (1974).

Vernadsky’s concept of noosphere is understood as the highest stage of biospheric

development, where human intelligence and agency become a decisive force shaping the

planet. Using documentary and poetic language, artist Lesia Vasylchenko, whose works are

presented at the exhibition, develops a proposition for chronosphere – a critical update on

the planetary constellation. For her chronosphere stands for intricate interplay of temporal

scales, ranging from the microtemporal, such as remote sensing of planetary surfaces and

computational cycles, to the macrotemporal, including ecological trauma and the nuclear

age. Following the artist’s premise, the exhibition tries to grasp various scales of

computation and temporality related to the new shapes of planetary constellations, as well

as their disruptions. It is a story about planetary meltdown and disfigured orbits, soviet

technopolitics and (post)cold-war imaginaries, scorched earth and ungoverned regeneration

of life.

Resonant with the Sobolev times, the exhibition presents small-scale works on paper by

Ukrainian artist Fedir Tetyanych from the 1970s and 1980s. In his drawings and collages, the

obscure procedures of calculations and speculations on landscapes and inner worlds. In

these works, he visualizes his studies of compositional orders and micro-universes, –

reminding planetary surfaces or the internalities of astrological bodies and unknown cavities,

that evoke topics he was obsessively dealing with such as infinity, and boundlessness.

New body of watercolor works by Veronika Hapchenko – presents planes with curvilinear

forms that intersect and weave through each other. With a strong sense of flow and captivity,

the curving elements resemble ribbons – organic tendrils or synthetic tubes stretching and

twisting in space conveying ethereal figures. Referencing Soviet techno-scientific depictions of man, progress and nature, Hapchenko navigates us through the eerie territories of failed premises of modernity.

Nina Hartman’s series of diagramatic works refer to various cold war archives, and traverse various forms of paranoid thinking. Nina studies paranormal, secretive and obscure knowledges and their weaponization in military tech. Poor ill-lit images – culled from books on psychological warfare and unclassified state documents, that she incorporates in her works can be seen as languages of domination, as well as possible detours from the omnipresent power. Her sculptural paintings make use of sacred geometry, as well as diagrammatic didacticism in order to obfuscate the regimes of truth.

Kateryna Lysovenko and Sana Shahmuradova Tanska present a poetic rendering of the

doom. Lysovenko’s small-scale watercolor drawings feature the tragic figure of Arachne,

whose web-spinning abilities warn about the humankind modernist hubris that can lead to a

planetary destruction. Shahmuradova Tanska’s large-scale paintings show the space where

moons and planets are melting with the bodies and the landscape. Planetary kinetics,

displaced orbits and dying suns that are dissolving into one. They disperse not only due to

external damage, but also as a form of protection from imperial violence. Nothing can stay

the same – plants, stars, waters. Bodies of planets and people will carry heavy weight.

The image of the planetary collapse from Sobolev’s film proposes the question: is it possible

to foresee events of such power being able to transgress the planetary urgency, its relations

with past and future? When a planet melts, when crusts cracking and flowing like lava, when

liquids boil and glowing magma swirling through the void – it recomposits matter, that

remembers life and solidarity. Against the forging power of death, there is ungoverned life.

Its affinity sometimes glows. Navigating through micro scales of regenerative life and macro

scales of cosmic gravitation, the exhibition negotiates between various scales of sensibility,

urgency and computational violence. Artistic works speak to the regenerative chaos of life –

a planet that can nest on a pin and still bear the possibilities of life, autonomy and

resistance.

Text by Aleksei Borisionok

Opening Reception: Friday, July 25th, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Dates: July 25th - September 20th, 2025
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Address: 802 NW 22nd Street, Miami, FL, US, 33127