Atom

Featuring Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski

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Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki presents her book Atom with research on the essence of the physical body and the connection of the presentation of the body to self-awareness and self-confidence. In Atom, we encounter five characters, including self-portraits of Ekaterina. The story is built via portraits, including leather pieces, still lives, and integration with poetic texts on the notion of touch, movement, and eroticism written by Beata Duvaker.

In this interview, Ekaterina speaks about her work on Atom and the main challenges in creating the book and working on still life imagery. She explains her fascination with the central theme, “The body, to me, is a porous vessel for empathy and individual emotions. It soaks in its surroundings and fills itself with experience ⎯ it is the only time that is not material.”

Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki is an interdisciplinary artist currently based between London and Los Angeles. Ekaterina post-graduated with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Chelsea College of Arts in the UK. She had numerous solo and group exhibitions and published several books and zines. Atom is her recent book published with Fleet Ilya, a design brand, and Soya Press in a limited edition of 200 copies. Edited by Fleet Ilya and Resha Sharma, Atom is a result of a decade-long collaboration between Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki and Fleet Ilya.

‘Very often in my visual art practice and in my independently printed books, I refer to the notion of a fetish and examine patterns of self-perception realised by a complex object ⎯ our body.’

The Book

Atom is, as you mention, a result of an almost decade-long collaboration with Fleet Ilya. How was the concept developed, eventually leading to research on the topic of the female body and sexuality during the first lockdown in London? 

Very often in my visual art practice and in my independently printed books, I refer to the notion of a fetish and examine patterns of self-perception realised by a complex object ⎯ our body. The body, to me, is a porous vessel for empathy and individual emotions. It soaks in its surroundings and fills itself with experience ⎯ it is the only time that is not material. 

Atom is an organic extension of my previously printed projects, which came out in a very poetic form of a book made in collaboration with Fleet Ilya. I have known Ilya and Resha Sharma (a co-founder of Fleet Ilya) for almost ten years. When we were working on Atom with Resha, our aim was to create something which was not about the imagery but more about the feeling. 

The book explores loneliness and self-acceptance in a particular environment at the start of the pandemic. When you look through the portraits of four women (and myself) in leather, still lives, and Beata Duvaker’s poetry, you go through this experience page by page. In terms of the physicality of the final object, I really wanted to create something textural that explains the choice of the cover and the reason to include very fragile, translucent pages.

‘The still lives were more complicated to produce because they have strong symbolism, especially in combination with photography of the body. I guess those were my main and old challenges during the work on Atom.’

The Theme

Fetish and self-awareness are the main themes communicated in the book. The introductory text written by Beata Duvaker presents the notion of independence from the gaze of the other and the ability to express oneself freely by means of the body. What were the challenges or perhaps the revelations during the work on this book? 

Generally speaking, the act of documenting is an intimate practice and offers an immediacy of mediums. Plus, fetish photography, as part of a broader category of erotic photography, is still a predominantly male field and a tough subject to work with. Due to its stigma, there are certain stereotypes connected to it as well. However, I had to think more carefully about the choice of still lives. The still lives were more complicated to produce because they have strong symbolism, especially in combination with photography of the body. I guess those were my main and old challenges during the work on Atom.

‘I guess my approach to directing the sitters in Atom was to observe and communicate with them, and that led to intimate documentation of the exploration of how a wearable object can alter the experience of being in your own body and bring a renewed sense of awareness.’

The Characters

Working with several models and also on self-portraiture, going through the same process of building the narrative and building trust, what did you learn from the methodology you developed? 

For me, the process of making artwork is not primal. The result is everything, and it is very much driven by its concept. To answer the question, I guess my approach to directing the sitters in Atom was to observe and communicate with them, and that led to intimate documentation of the exploration of how a wearable object can alter the experience of being in your own body and bring a renewed sense of awareness ⎯ the intimacy with Fleet Ilya's leather pieces, that is quite an energy bonding process for me. I also find it therapeutic for both sides. I would call it the mythology of making meaningful connections.

‘I would say that I keep the experience simple ⎯ it should feel like something rather than look like something.’

The Experience

Could you share some of the experiences of the final part that consists of choosing the images for the print that will form the narrative, work on design and layouts, and the print itself? 

I would say that I keep the experience simple ⎯ it should feel like something rather than look like something. The book is like a prologue. You wonder, 'What’s going on?' You feel something is going to happen. With photography of the body, still lives, poetry (language), and the experience of time as points of departure, the book engages the limitations of representation and images as sites of interpretation. The main aspect of editing the book was to keep in balance two inherently different media: poetry unfolds in time and photography exists in space.