Rust (2026)
A performance by Alexander Tarasenko in collaboration with sound artist Alessandro Paiano.
Duration: 90 minutes
The work premiered at KOPPEL Collective (London) on 30 April 2026, as part of the public programme accompanying 'QUIET RITUALS', Tarasenko’s duo exhibition with Katya Tsareva.
Rust brings together two of Tarasenko’s long-term projects exploring anxiety. The endless neurotic rituals underpinning the series 'It Is Stronger Than You' (2018–present) are explored through the visual language of the series 'I Have Many Times Tried To Become An Insect...' (2023–present), which draws on the artist’s research into ancient rites of passage. The soundscape, specially composed by Paiano for this collaboration and featuring a pulsating rhythm based on the friction of rusted metal and the sound of rust flaking from surfaces, recorded collaboratively by the artists, was accompanied during the performance by a live trumpet improvisation.
Team:
Idea, movement score, headpiece design, and fabrication: Alexander Tarasenko
Soundscape composition and live sound performance: Alessandro Paiano
On-set rope work (external rope bondage): Joshua Roberts
Video: Umi Ishihara
Camera assistant: Camilla Salvatore
Video editing: Alexander Tarasenko
Full video footage available at request.
I Have Many Times Tried To Become An Insect. But I Was Not Equal Even To That. (2025)
A performance by Alexander Tarasenko on 2 August 2025 at Hypha HQ (London) and on the streets around the gallery.
Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes
The work focuses on cross-cultural differences and migration, addressing both abortive attempts of the outsider to understand and adapt to the new society and the host society's reaction to the 'other', and questioning actual non-declarative readiness of both sides to accept and embrace the diversity of the other party.
Performance and rope garment (jute rope, hessian, dried chicken heads and feet): Alexander Tarasenko
Live sound: Nick Parkin
Video documentation: Joshua Roberts
Photo documentation: indexthumb
Special thanks to Alen Lee, Zhen Feng Ang and Joshua Roberts for their help with the preparations on the day.
Part of the public programme for the 'Conviction Fair' exhibition curated by Zhen Feng Ang.
Full video footage available at request.
It Is Stronger Than You (2025)
A public performance by Alexander Tarasenko on 15 November 2025 at 25PES (Glasgow).
Duration: 120 minutes
This work explores the endless cyclical protective rituals characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The work reinterprets the artist's earlier video work from the same series.
Video documentation: Choin Lee
Part of the opening of offline embassy of the Memoryscape pavilion of The Wrong Biennale curated by Sasha Souther.
Full video footage available at request.
I Have Many Times Tried To Become An Insect. But I Was Not Equal Even To That. (2025)
Wood, metal, stones, gunfoam, ropes, threads, hessian, dried chicken, and (for the duration of the performance) the artist's body
250 × 250 × 300 cm
Installation view from the 'Conviction Fair' exhibition at Hypha HQ, London, curated by Zhen Feng Ang.
Photo documentation: Sergey Novikov
Foreground: In Transition: The Migration of the Nutria Spirit (2026)
Gun foam, jute rope, latex, hessian, rabbit skin, metal, wood
Background: Twitching (2026)
Digital video, 10min, looped
Installation view from the 'QUIET RITUALS' exhibition at KOPPEL Collective, London.
Documentation: Sergey Novikov and Alexander Tarasenko