One of the most striking aspects of Zhanna Kadyrova’s art, which includes photography, video, sculpture, performance, and installation, is her experimentation with forms, materials, and meaning. She often uses cheap tiling for mosaic, combined with heavyweight construction materials such as concrete and cement.
For Market (2017-ongoing, exhibited in the Arsenale), a food stall equipped with everything a street trader needs, she makes sausages and salamis from concrete and natural stone, and fashions fruit and vegetables – bananas, watermelons, pomegranates, aubergines – in chunky mosaic.
The version of Second Hand (2014-ongoing) on view in the Central Pavilion repurposes ceramic tiles from a hotel in Venice to construct items of clothing and linen.
