Oksana Zharun

A figure created from materials from Kryvyi Rih — remnants from iron ore extraction — becomes the image of a person whom the Soviet industry regarded as just another resource. In an environment where value is measured in tons, a human is only another layer to be exhausted.
The exhausted body is discarded like waste rock.

The series continues this logic through humanoid objects that contain various resources: available, depleted, inaccessible, renewable, and sometimes even deeply personal. It gathers components for iron smelting, coke sintering, references to the steppe and the garden. They reflect influence and manipulation: from waste rock to grain as a symbol of access to food, iron ore, or coal, ownership of which determines the sphere of power.
The work restores subjectivity to those who were reduced to function.