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- Roots Without Soil
Anna Vekhnyk
“Roots Without Soil” is an installation that explores the loss of endemic plants of Eastern Ukraine as a result of war and ecological disasters, including the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.
The work approaches the landscape as a carrier of memory: the disappearance of an environment means the disappearance of forms of life that cannot be recreated outside a specific territory.
At the center of the work is the image of roots separated from the soil. They appear not only as a botanical element but rather as a sign of a broken connection between an organism and the environment in which it could exist.
Endemic plants of Eastern Ukraine—such as pearl cornflower, Donetsk feather grass, naked yarrow, chalk lousewort, and others—are examples of forms of life that emerged under unique conditions and cannot be fully recreated outside them.
The installation questions the very possibility of preserving such an experience. Any attempt to fix or “archive” a vanished landscape inevitably produces only a conditional, artificial model of it.
Anna Vekhnyk is an artist working with painting, installation, land art, and experimental techniques. In her artistic practice, she explores the inner human experience, the fragility of existence, and the interaction between the individual, social structures, and the natural environment. Her works often emerge from personal experiences and observations of reality, combining intimate emotional states with broader social and ecological themes.
In her projects, the artist works with metaphorical imagery, symbolic materials, and spatial compositions, creating situations in which the viewer encounters questions of presence, memory, and loss. She experiments with different media—from painting to installation and video art—exploring how material and form can convey complex emotional and philosophical states.
Anna devotes significant attention in her work to the themes of war and its impact on both people and the environment. Her works address the experience of forced displacement, the loss of home, and the disappearance of natural landscapes. In the project “Roots Without Soil,” the artist reflects on the disappearance of endemic plants of Eastern Ukraine as a result of war and ecological catastrophe