The whole world was not accessible to my gaze
Group exhibition in The Carillon gallery
Texas, USA
2019
"I told myself that I see the world. But the whole world was not accessible to my gaze, and I saw only parts of the world." —Daniil Kharms


"The whole world was not accessible to my gaze" brings together artists based in New York, New Orleans, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, Russia, whose works are framed within the absurdity of today's dark and interesting times. Its title is borrowed from "The Werld" (c. 1930) by Russian poet Daniil Kharms (1905–1942), which acted as a deadpan response to the brutality of the Soviet era, and which can easily be translated to the contemporary zeitgeist. The works in the exhibition confront the loneliness, vulnerability, and anxiety conjured by the instability of today's times by interweaving black humor, satire, irony, the uncanny, and the grotesque, into zines, drawings, sculptures, and videos.

The exhibition is curated by Francesca Altamura (New York, NY) and Lizaveta Matveeva (St.Petersburg, Russia).


"Reconnection". Tapestry, hand embroidery. 60 x 152.
"Security warning". Tapestry, hand embroidery. 49 x 112.

A lot of people still have old things left from the soviet times in their homes, like the two old tapestries used by Dagnini. The objects contain the memories of that time, but there is not much value to these things yet. Hand embroideries made by the artist on top of the tapestries turn those into virtual windows. Embroidered interface frames the original paysage, it adds another dimension to the object.

Those remind us of the moment we entered the virtual space.


The Internet back then was much slower and more simple than today, but at that time so new and exciting, almost magical. The new world, a way to escape our life's routine. Those who were wasting hours playing Solitaire game, or trying to connect the Internet through dial up modem now miss the visual aesthetics of the old operating systems and it's measured pace. With the evolving of internet and social media we have lost this meditative way of experiencing technology.