A Tale Of Tales

1. This series is based on stills constructed of objects part of which are our family relics and remembrances, others just resemble artefacts from the past: grandma’s brooch, grandpa’s comb, sister’s cut hair, tableware. In a twisted way it interprets some of the memorial rituals common in the country I live: from preserving things to the tradition of covering a glass of water/vodka with a piece of bread at funeral. All these things from the past combined with items from modernity create symbols of time, death, connection, memory and blood ties. By designing these stills, I am questioning the authenticity of our recollections and reliability of human memory.

2. The series may as well be a metaphor to the impossibility of fulfilling some of the processes of our lives as human beings. Our failure to get absolute satisfaction, incompatibility, disharmony, anxiety, inability of self-fulfillment, leading to traumas and frustration.

3. And probably, this project may serve an example of the power to construct any narrative using universal symbols and triggers, emotional and comprehensible enough to influence and involve. Thus the represented pool of images may exist and be interpreted in various ways, implying the notion of post-truth.

Oksana Veniaminova (1986) is a Belarusian photographer living in Minsk. These series were screened at this year’s Riga Photomonth.