Today we’d like to introduce you to Polina Protsenko.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Polina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My mom, grandparents and I immigrated from Estonia when I was three years old. After the fall of the Soviet Union, there were very little if any jobs for Russians in bordering countries where my family lived for decades. In the hopes of more opportunities, my family decided to come to the States – first Florida then Maryland. I was raised in a household of Russian traditions and values as well as adjusted to American customs and morals. In certain situations I feel split between two, in other situations, I strive to find a meld between both. From the very start of it all, my family supported my ambitions to use art as a tool for communication and proclamation.
I enrolled at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the fall of 2012, where I double majored in Art Education and Studio for Interrelated Media. Both majors shaped my specific interest in participatory art, whether that be with the community, with the site, or with the body. In SIM, I discovered the strength of collaboration and how to question form. This unique undergraduate department “is intended for student artists interested in a curriculum that supports idea-centered, interdisciplinary, and non-media specific artistic practice, along-side collaboration, and self-governance. SIM majors work with sound, light, motion, digital and experimental media, live performance, public practice, interactive installations, event production, print and spoken word, and/or a combination thereof. Students decide how to program, produce, critique, organize and self-govern each class meeting under faculty advisement. It gives students a rare and unique opportunity to experiment, to fail, to succeed – students own the process of the educational journey and leverage this experience once they graduate. This discovery occurs while students are engaged in a participatory educational experiment where they have the opportunity to shape their learning experience as well as their community.” (https://massartsim.org/about/about-sim/)
Upon graduating from MassArt in 2016, I moved to Chicago where I am currently receiving my Masters in Performance Art at The Art Institute of Chicago. I am experimenting with different frameworks at SAIC. Nevertheless, I am growing here. Growing as an artist who constantly questions the impact an artistic action can have on someone. I am learning new methods and concepts. I set myself the goal of graduate school during my junior year at MassArt because as much as a cliché this is – I thoroughly enjoy learning new things. I was fortunate enough to fulfill this goal into realization soon after. During my studies here, I can dive head-first into research. From the library to the studio, I feel like I can intentionally use my time to push my own theories – with the help of one on one advising through a variety of extraordinary professors.
I spent the last few months as a project manager and teaching assistant for the A Long Walk Home, Inc. alongside Executive Director, Scheherazade Tillet (SAIC alumni) and an inspiring cohort. (ALWH) is a Chicago-based national non-profit that uses art to educate, inspire, and mobilize young people to end violence against girls and women from the South side and West side. The summer program included dance and writing workshops, photography tutorials and much more. We centralized all our talents, new-found knowledge, and art activism to the “Visibility Project: Black Girls Takeover” which was held at Douglas Park on July 26th 2018, as a featured participant in and partner with the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks and Monument Lab; A Long Walk Home’s Girl/Friends artists and activists hosted live performances, a photography exhibition, DJ, art making, play, and the “Healing Tree,” as special tribute to the living memory of Rekia Boyd and recently missing Black girls in the community. This dynamic gathering recognized the important contributions black girls make to their communities, to Chicago, and our country and highlight their creative responses to their experiences of invisibility in conversations, institutions, and movements for gender and racial equality in the United States. For one day only, these girls and young women took center stage at Night Out in the Parks and welcomed others into the world with art and free expression. Over 150 attended the events and it was truly magical to be a part of such an emotionally moving experience.
Now my art making is a performative process directed by human intimacy and agency in a social context as a way to examine our relationships with one another. These experiences are often produced through movement-based actions, scripted interactions, site-specific installations, print media, and video to construct collaborative exchanges. I invite participants to re-imagine the potential capabilities our body hold and the collective role we play in through the inclusion of women’s perspective. Chicago as a city which provides many opportunities for artists to showcase, exchange ideas and talents, as well as diversity. I am excited to enter my last year of school and plan to continue working in Chicago after graduation.
Has it been a smooth road?
I have been very lucky, but I have had my set of struggles and doubts along the way too. I am sure it will continue in that manner – which makes it the more exciting. The challenge is what motivates us I think. It really comes down to the need for art making as personal desire – “cant life without” feeling. No matter how bumpy the road could get, I cannot imagine doing anything else. Being a first generation immigrant I do feel pressure to ensure my family is proud of me and taken care of. They decided to start new lives for me, hence I owe them to try my hardest. I think most artists will agree with me that the struggles add fuel.
We critique, question, create, based on our intuition. The “art world” is what you make it to be.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Polina Protsenko – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I would say I am only now starting out to think of my studio practice as a business. I prefer to use my skills in production, light design, facilitation of event, curriculum writing, teaching, community and museum outreach as a guiding force. I am interested in many art directions but while I am in graduate school, I am pushing myself to explore my cultural roots and closely relate it to the social-political current state. I am allowing my studio work to pave the way.
I have met amazing collaborators during my time here and in MassArt, so I plan to continue to build those connections. I recently had the pleasure of showcasing in a duo show titled Coming Asunder with Marie Segolene (SAIC MFA 2019) in at the Chicago to Extase Gallery in Ukranian Village curated by Budgie Birka-White (SAIC MA 2019). The opening and closing exhibition involved site-specific performance, installation, video, projection, photography, and works on paper. The collective was invested in the exploration of femininity and domesticity, affection, power dynamics, and release (http://fnewsmagazine.com/2018/06/intimate-excavations/).
I also am part of the performance collective showcasing the REDA Fall/Winter 2018 collaborative collection with international model and philanthropist, Monika Jac Jagaciak. “In devising the campaign, Jagaciak reached out to six performance artists who created individual artworks that responded to each shoe, as well as the prompt of “who wears the pants?”. With boldness and creativity, each artist exhibited new performance works that engaged ideas of female empowerment, showcasing the strengths of stylistic self-expression. The artists included in the campaign are Sophie Leddick, Jinlu Luo, Polina Protsenko, Nanna Rosenfeldt-Olsen and Celia Wickham.” (https://redamilano.com/jac-reda-capsule-collection).
An upcoming show Object/Item/Material/Artist in Overlook Gallery curated by Graham Feyl in October with other local Chicago will focus on the objects within the art form and the role of materiality (http://theoverlookplace.com).
And there’s more to come.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What I like best about the city is there is never a dull moment – in one day I can go to the beach, sit outside on a patio for happy hour, eat authentic Puerto Rican food, enjoy some donuts on way home, attend a few art shows, bowl in the evening, find an old-timey bar with a photo booth and shuffle-board to end the night.
What I like least about the city, which many will probably agree with, are the winter chills.
Contact Info:
- Website: polinaprotsenko.com
- Email: polprotsenko@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/polpro
Image Credit:
personal photo by Alex and Anastasiia Polyakov
– Coming Asunder opening performance at Chicago to Extase Gallery in Ukranian Village, photos by Jesse Meredith (SAIC MFA 2018)
– A performance with Monika Jac Jagaciak for REDA shoe collection
– Image of The Visibility Project with A Long Walk Home Inc in Douglas Park
– closing reception at Chicago to Extase Gallery in Ukranian Village
– Dearly Intimate Performance and Video Projection by Polina Protsenko including performers Christopher Huizar (SAIC MFA 2019), Sungjae Lee (SAIC MFA 2019), Kyra Lehman (SAIC MFA 2019), Celia Wickham (SAIC MA 2018).
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