Martyrdom/Body/State: Manifesting Power

Katerina Sidorova

With Nell Cardozo + Aga Paulina Młyńczak

Edited and Introduced by Isabella Shields

‘This publication is about responsibility and control. About how responsibility involves the protection of others. About how control involves the protection of the self.

It is about catch and release. About captivity and the corrupted freedom that results from it. About the results of manipulated information. About the internalisation and distribution of manipulated information. These acts are predicated on the conception of an instance (not a fact or a fiction), the myriad interpellations that affect the reception of that instance (subjective experience), and the resultant expression of the information about that instance (the objectification).

It is about the distended sense of reality that is painted by the brush with death. About the physical feeling of that brush. About being tarred with that brush. About that brush being unlike any other, and unlike the brush that paints any other person. About the way that brush is held. About death. About the people who hold the brush.

The work that follows is about the vectors these thoughts run along, and the pillars that uphold them.

This publication was made in tandem with A Pile of Ash, Sidorova’s exhibition at 16 Nicholson Street Gallery in Glasgow. The gallery is led by myself, and the curators of Sidorova’s exhibition, Aga Paulina Mlynczak, and Nell Cardozo, both of whom also act as contributors for this publication. It exists as a collection of research and historical accounts, a translation, a reflective work, as political criticism, abstract apography, poetry, prose, art-writing, and creative nonfiction.’

- ‘Introduction’, Isabella Shields

You can read the publication online in full via this link.

Original text by Katerina Sidorova.
With original text contributions by Nell Cardozo and Aga Paulina Młyńczak.
Edited and Introduced by Isabella Shields.
Graphic design by Zineb Benassarou.
Illustrations by Katerina Sidorova.
Printing and binding by Stencilwerck.
Reading Katerina Sidorova, Aga Paulina Mlynczak, Isabella Shields, Nell Cardozo.