Nika Neelova was born in 1987 in Russia and lives and works in London, UK.
Often utilising reclaimed architectural materials, Nika Neelova is interested in the way
materials and architecture influence our sense of time and place. Her sculptures are
created by employing tactics of ‘reverse archaeology’ – considering an alternative reading
of human history by examining found objects and architectural debris, and transforming
them beyond functionality. In these works the human body and touch remains as a
vestigial memory.
Inspired by a multidisciplinary research on the artefacts that compose the surrounding
world and using pre-existing and imaginary stories, Neelova’s installations are often made
out of architectural elements taken from everyday places. These elements, recognizable
as well as not identifiable, are combined together by the artist in order to highlight their
intrinsic attributes, regardless of their primary usage. Reducing entire structures to their
core elements and enhancing the mutations of the materials involved, Neelova’s
sculptures are focused on the changing process of the materials and the translation and
comprehension of their aims. Moreover they unlock the elements from their predefined
meaning by retracing their shaping process and altering their inner structures. Her artistic
work, in its entirety, explores the fluidity of the matter over time, that swings between
inorganic and organic, archaeological finds and futuristic debris of the proto-planet.
NIKA NEELOVA
