Reflection on Practice (2023–2025)
Reflecting on all the works I have created over the past two years, I realize that each piece holds significance within a larger whole. In the early stages, it is essential for me to choose a theme and immerse myself deeply into it — exploring it through historical context and anthropological understanding, as discussed in my research Reimagining Traditions: Art, Anthropology, and the Dialogue Between Past and Present. Only after such immersion does the theme unfold as a true source of inspiration, allowing me to create a series of works that embody the depth and complexity I seek.
However, the creation of works and the understanding of a theme do not mark the end of the process. Once I know the specific place where my works will be shown, a new phase begins. I rethink the works through the lens of the site, considering how they will interact with the space, with one another, and with the audience. Sometimes this requires reworking or adapting the pieces — not in their core meaning, but in their configuration and dialogue.
My time during the art residency in Togatta, Japan in 2024 deeply reinforced this approach. Immersing myself in a new environment, I experienced firsthand how the spirit of a place can reshape the narrative I am building — encouraging a dialogue not only between the artworks and their surroundings but also between personal memory and collective cultural memory.
A similar process unfolded during the creation of Descendants of the Dragon: A Story from the Music Box Museum (2024), where I explored how memory, myth, and movement could be interlaced within a historical site. There, I worked with the idea of time as a living melody — a thread connecting personal imagination with collective mythologies — further developing my understanding of how site, story, and artistic form can merge.
This sensitivity to place also shaped my work at the Japanese Cemetery in Singapore (2024), where I held an exhibition exploring myths, cultural symbols, and forgotten stories. The exhibition focused on the idea of the palimpsest — how old and new stories overlap across time and cultures.
I carefully build the atmosphere of the exhibition, crafting an emotional landscape that extends beyond the individual works into the experience of the viewer. Each exhibition becomes a living organism, where artworks, space, and audience meet and shape one another.
Because of this, my works can be seen as site-responsive — they are specific to place, sensitive to context, and shaped by the unique features of their environment. Each project becomes not just a presentation, but a new telling of an old story, woven from the threads of research, materiality, and human connection.
My new artist Statement:
Artist Activity Overview and Statement — Inessa Kalabekova
I am a multimedia artist. My practice weaves together painting, collage, installation, dance, performance, and storytelling. I am fascinated by how cultural narratives, rituals, and folklore shape human experience across time and geography. Drawing inspiration from anthropology, mythology, and daily life, I work with stories that have been layered, erased, and reimagined across generations. Through my work, I create contemporary palimpsests — surfaces where new meanings emerge, layered over traces of the old.
My artistic activities move across several interconnected areas:
Visual Art:
I create layered collages and mixed-media paintings, often using materials that carry their own history — old canvases, museum brochures, maps, found objects. In my recent series Golden Bough and Ancient Whisper, I explored recurring cultural motifs through textured surfaces, working with ideas of memory, transformation, and connection.
Performance and Dance:
Movement is at the heart of my practice. I create performances where dance merges with visual storytelling, embodying myths and ancient rituals. I often work in site-specific locations — gardens, cemeteries, museums — allowing the environment to become part of the narrative. Through movement, I search for the invisible threads that connect body, story, and space.
Installation and Participatory Works:
I build immersive installations that invite audiences to step into tactile, narrative experiences. These often combine textile works, sculptural objects, masks, and soundscapes. One recent work — a carpet-calendar installation — was based on the agrarian cycles of Slavic folklore, merging embroidery, collage, and participatory performance to create a living map of time and memory.
Research and Writing:
Research is an essential part of my artistic process. I focus on how rituals are reinterpreted through contemporary art, how myth evolves, and how anthropology and art intertwine. I have written about the palimpsest as a cultural metaphor and explored how artists today act as cultural alchemists — preserving, transforming, and reawakening ancient traditions in new forms.
Across all these activities, connection is the core of what I do — connection between times, between cultures, between people. Whether through a painted surface, a danced gesture, or a woven thread, I try to create spaces where the old and the new meet, where hidden layers of meaning can be felt, and where storytelling becomes a bridge across different worlds.
I am currently based in Singapore, with roots in Central Asia and academic formation in London. My practice grows from a deep engagement with cross-cultural dialogues, and a belief in the enduring magic of stories.