Lidija Kononenko is a London-based artist, working with sculpture, video, text, images and sound to explore methodologies of scientific research around the human condition.
Her works interlace the personal with the analytical and interrogate different modes of understanding the body and embodiment, from the visual expression of physical states such as exertion or falling asleep, to emotions such as falling in love. Looking at the self through the scientific lens as a site to be mapped and maintained she considers the expansion of the biomedical into private spheres.
Kononenko graduated from Royal Academy of Arts in London, and has exhibited at Somers gallery, London (solo), Metenkov House Museum of Photography, Ekaterinburg (solo); Atletika gallery, Vilnius (duo), The Nunnery Gallery, London; Ya Gallery, Kyiv; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki. Screenings include Plaza Plaza Cinema (online); ECNP Congress (online); Tenderflix, London; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Ciné 13 Théâtre, Paris; and The Courtyard, London. She is a recipient of the Art of Neuroscience award, the Netherlands; Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam; the Peter Rippon Travel award and E Vincent Harris award, both Royal Academy of Arts, London.
The Pacemaker
HD Video / 07:06 min / 2019
01:47 min excerpt
The Pacemaker is an animation film exploring endurance training and emotional complexities in intimate relationships. Through personal writing, research into physiology and visual language of anatomy, the narrative draws parallels between a lover’s and a runner’s ‘high’. As the subject attempts to extend their own emotional and physical parameters, the film inquires the notion of freedom in a culture driven by self-optimisation.