Pattern of Activation (C.elegans), 2020, installation, mixed media

Katja Novitskova's practice unfolds through an associative method that brings conceptually and visually into dialogue apparently distant and separated realms. The virtual world is linked to the physical dimension, and one serves as a reference for the other. The intermingling of different domains leads to sculptural objects and installations with a complex aesthetic, as if to mirror the intricacy of our reality.

Mamaroo (fossil), 2017, sculpture detail, mixed media

Technology is embedded in biologically derived shapes, giving life to robotic entities, alien and organic at the same time. The natural and the manufactured are closely intertwined; sometimes, cables and eerie devices seem to confer a vital spirit to non-living creatures. Other times, elements coming from the informatics language are juxtaposed to images of animals. Potential narrative paths are then designed and showcased, confronting the viewer with an aura of impenetrability while bestowing the audience with the freedom to navigate the artworks with their intuitions and feelings.

Invasion Curves, 2018, exhibition view at Whitechapel, London

What is the main drive behind your creations? What triggers your mind, soul and heart the most within your artistic approach?

My approach to art is very intuitive. The research and thinking that I do for work mean nothing until I sense or usually accidentally create a spark that triggers an artwork to be born. My primary method is basically visual surfing: I browse through a ton of open tabs, folders of images and pdfs on my computer, looking for associative connections between things that interest me. This process is the most fun part of my practice because it’s the most open-ended and allows true creativity to take place. Then I start sketching, usually in Photoshop. Lately, I’ve also been working with this software called Runway ML for sketching with generative AI.

Earthware (driverless car seeing a deer for the first time 2), 2019, digital print transfer on synthetic clay, nail polish

How are the human and the non-human realms, art and science domains connected in your works? Would you say that they collide or cooperate?

For me, art (as in fine arts, music, fashion, internet) and science (any field that uses computational research methods) are sources of novel visual forms in our culture. I’m cross-referencing them throughout my work in order to create forms that are somewhat new and hybrid.

Earth Potential (vulture, alpha helix), 2016, UV resistant digital print on two layers of aluminum dibond, cutout display

How do technology and affectivity are brought into dialogue in your works? How does the first influence the other in our present, according to you?

Quantification of affectivity is possibly a key feature of our era of capitalism, as seen throughout the expansion of social media platforms and their influence on societies. A decade ago, I started to create works that reflected this and made use of affect in my practice. My series Approximations features edits of existing photographs of animals cut out of their original context and made into flat sculptures printed on aluminium dibond. The series looks like an Instagram feed of cute animals, but made into physical objects. The attention summoned by the visible beauty and cuteness of the animal sculptures online helped propel my art career and prove the concept of digital attention economy becoming central in the art world.

Pattern of Activation (eyes of the world), 2017, installation, mixed media

Your artworks offer us visions and insights into organisms that appear otherworldly. What does alienness mean to you?

Alienness, for me, is attractive as a source of forms that are difficult to define and comprehend. Within culture, they usually lie on the threshold between something recognisable and belonging to our world and the opposite of that. Alienness is like a reverse mirror to any society that imagines it. It also reverses our understanding of science or biology, desire and ethics, intelligence and beauty. So as a trope, it’s a very juicy tool to explore things on the borders and go over them. Scientifically we discover mini alien worlds all the time (new species are still being discovered daily), and our definitions of biological life and its possibility beyond Earth are shifting rapidly. Aesthetically, I’ve been greatly influenced by H.R. Giger’s visions. So in my work, I try to capture a sense of alienness to trigger sensations towards existing and potential hybrid realities.

Energy Release (pink) and Growth Potentials, 2018, Installation view at KUMU Museum in Tallinn

Would you like to expand a bit on the concept of “Patterns of Activation”?

Pattern of Activation is another series of works that usually defines an installation of sculptures and sometimes video projections and sound. The idea was to make installations with an inner logic that is not a straightforward narrative but rather an associative pattern of forms that relate to each other on different layers of meaning. For example, the first-ever Pattern of Activation (on Mars), 2014 featured a backdrop landscape photo of a Martian surface taken by a robot and a sculpture of a marabou bird and a giant red arrow standing on this surface. The marabou became a stand-in for a robot and possibly an alien life form. The red arrow pointed to it and simultaneously imitated indicators present both within scientific and alien conspiracy images. The whole installation also referred to the story that the Moon landings were shot at a film studio in Hollywood by Stanley Kubrick.

Mamaroo (smoldering brain, green bugs) and Mamaroo (smoldering brain, growth potential), 2019, mixed media electronic sculpture

Approximation (CT scan Nakht-ef-mut, snapshot Serengeti 10.12.2015 15:48:51), 2018, digital print on 2 layers of aluminum, cutout display

What do you think is essential for artists who aim to be a relevant voice in the contemporary scenario to bring forward through their practice?

The cool thing about art is the variety of approaches any artist can take to connect to people with their practice. A painter can be as sci-fi as a new media artist; a poem can be as visionary as an intricate 4K video. As long as the artists are sincere in their interests and explore the world for themselves first, they can communicate with the audience and make people relate to their work.

Mamaroo (eggs), 2017, mixed media electronic sculpture

Where is your research heading at the moment, and what about your forthcoming projects?

I’ve been working on several things since the beginning of the pandemic: a project that generates synthetic models of viruses and protein structures using machine learning algorithms (Microbial Oasis), a series of NFT projects (Mutagen, Replicants exhibition for Epoch.gallery), a proper offline exhibition at my gallery in Berlin Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (upcoming in 2022).