In June 2024 Kristina Rozhkova was arrested in Russia following a denunciation linked to a photoshoot, placed in a detention centre and later put under house arrest. Developed under conditions of incarceration, her latest book Gut Feeling, responds to a cultural climate of enforced state control, one that stifles dissent and attempts to restrict artistic freedom.
At the centre of the work is the site of the cage, both a literal physical condition and a symbolic social order. Turning to rabbits and rats confined to small cages and spaces, the artist develops a stark visual language to trace a lived experience of incarceration. Placed for two months alongside thirteen women in a pre-trail detention unit, bodies become clashing, hysterical animals held captive.
“I won’t look away from my arrest, and I don’t want others to look away as if it’s something ‘inconvenient’. I will cast a light on this violence, and show – without giving it a comfortable, consumable form – the unpleasant things I experienced myself”
Kristina Rozhkova
“There is an electrifying, if unnerving, energy to Kristina Rozhkova’s first collaboration with cult independent publisher Void. Both a protest and a record, ‘Gut Feeling’ is an unflinching look at what it means to hold something or someone against their will, as well as at their request.“
Amie Corry — AnOther Magazine
