THE PRESENT EXISTS
A Living Archive of Timeless Unity.
Exploring the echoes of immigration and the love that binds generations—a visual study of timelessness across borders and time.
In this project, I look for Timeless Unity: the invisible thread that connects who we were with who we are becoming.
My life was fractured by loss and migration, but through this work, I find a sense of timelessness—where the path to the cemetery in Kazakhstan and my life today in the UK exist in the same moment. By documenting the 30 apple trees planted by my father and the bridge he built, I am not just looking at the past; I am capturing a unity that survives distance, death, and change.
This is my evidence that despite everything we lose, we remain whole.
THE WORLD DIVIDED
In 1998, my world fractured into 'before' and 'after'. This collage is a map of my identity—a bridge between Kazakhstan, Latvia, and the UK. It represents the moment I realised that while physical homes change, the body carries the history of everyone we have lost. It is the first record of my survival.
TACTILE MEMORY
Because my story is unique, I create one-of-a-kind, handmade Zines. These are not just books; they are physical vessels for fragments that cannot be replaced. By stitching together archival photos and raw thoughts, I ensure that the 'Present' is caught on paper before it can slip away. Memory is not a digital file; it is something you must hold in your hands.
MAPPING THE JOURNEY
Across borders and through decades. This collage maps a 49-year journey of migration. From the landscapes of my birth in Kazakhstan to my life today in England, it visualises the threads that connect different lands into one Timeless Unity. It is evidence that our roots move with us.
A LIFETIME IN TEN MINUTES
A simple walk from my childhood home to the cemetery. An ordinary road that stretches into an entire lifetime. I walk over the bridge my father built, through the forest where we picked flowers, and past the apple trees that still bloom. This path is a timeless bridge—connecting what was, what is, and those who still live within me.
TWO OF US
In loving memory of my father
Four years after his passing, the dialogue hasn’t stopped. It has simply changed its form.
TWO OF US is a cinematic meditation on the invisible architecture of a father-daughter bond. Moving between the everyday and the infinite, the film traces the fragments of a relationship—the ritual of a daily phone call, the quiet weight of an apple, and the bridge that remains long after the architect has gone.
Using mixed-media techniques and a blend of archival emotion, I explore how grief transforms into a creative force. This is not just a film about loss; it is a visual record of how we carry those who shaped us, finding their presence in the rhythm of the sea and the silence of the trees.
MEMORY UNFINISHED
Where the past and present exist in the same moment.
My grandmother had golden hands. She knitted for the whole family, for the neighbours, for anyone who needed warmth. As a child I wore a sweater she made me — I was the most beautifully dressed child I knew. She taught me everything I know about working with my hands.
She died in 1993. And she left behind this small piece of unfinished crochet.
For over thirty years I kept it. I never knew what it was meant to become — a shawl, a tablecloth, something else entirely. I just kept it. Waiting, without knowing what I was waiting for.
Then one day an old oval frame came into my hands. And suddenly I knew.
The textile sits at the centre — shaped like an iceberg. The small visible point is the present: me, now. Everything below is what I come from: grandmothers, grandfathers, family histories, the inherited knowledge of making. The roots that hold us even when we cannot see them.
Along the horizon lie hagstones — sea-worn stones gathered from the Sussex coast, my place of stillness and memory. In British folklore, peering through their holes reveals another world. They guard the threshold of the home.
Time is not linear. These stones were shaped over thousands of years. My grandmother’s hands worked this textile in 1993. I stand here now. All of this exists in the same moment.
This is what I call timeless unity.
THE VISION: TOWARDS A SOLO EXHIBITION
“A lifelong archive seeking its physical architecture.”
The Present Exists is conceived as an immersive, multi-sensory installation—a space where private memory transforms into a public sanctuary. I am currently seeking curatorial partners, residency opportunities, and cultural funding to bring this 49-year journey into a gallery environment.
This archive is still breathing. My raw research and the stories for my future book continue in Journal.
Small Note:
COMING SOON: The Geography of Presence — A detailed timeline of migration from 1976 to the present.