Ulijona Odišarija. ‘Wearing’

Ulijona Odišarija’s solo show will feature works from series developed over several years inspired by her
long-standing interest in images found on online second-hand clothing marketplaces.
The works in the show draw on a collection of amateur photography saved from reselling websites such as
Vinted and eBay as a starting point. Low-fi, blurry, often haphazardly composed images that don’t
accurately reflect the items they are supposed to advertise act as visual poems that speak to the
melancholy of the domestic. Resistant to commercial criteria, these images clash with their intended role
as product photography and instead become foreign bodies in the e-commerce spaces reflecting the
fragmented everyday.
Ulijona pays great attention to thingness in her work – she is interested not only in the inexhaustible flow
and variety of things but also the very conditions of their existence. Observing what makes something
real, the artist seeks to liberate the object from its assigned function.
Led by the mood of the image collection, Ulijona creates new objects employing utilitarian materials that
are usually intended to remain unseen or in the background: office supplies, repurposed packaging,
various types of paper, adhesive tape, photo album inserts, as well as coffee, pearlescent paint and
imitation diamonds.
Fragile, abstract sculptural objects and collages – inaccurately scaled paper fragments of clothing and
footwear – act as fuzzy reflections of mass production. Intended to exist as equal participants in reality
these objects ever so slightly slip past it. Highlighting the gap between structured reality and its
permeability, the artworks remind us of the shadows in the ordinary field of vision.
Looking at the world through a humorous and tender lens, the artist is searching for a sweet spot between
inertia and poetry, burnout and awakening, survival mode and imagination. When the camera focus
suddenly shifts and blurs, and a too-bright light burns out and obscures the whole, you are left to
surrender to the vibrating surfaces of the world.

Ulijona Odišarija (b. 1984) works in a range of mediums, predominantly sculpture, photography,
video, music, text and acts of collecting. In addition to her practice she makes music with her band Steve
& Samantha and organises community clothes swaps called Outfitting. She completed a Masters in Fine
Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2016 (University College London).
Her work has been presented at E.A. Shared Space in Tbilisi, Georgia; Montos Tattoo, Contemporary
Art Centre and National Art Gallery in Vilnius, Lithuania; Morra Greco Foundation in Naples, Italy;
Toronto International Film Festival in Canada; Close Up Cinema, SET and Institute of Contemporary
Arts in London, United Kingdom; PAKT and LIMA Foundation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
Showroom in New York, US, and online on flatness.eu, history-joy.cc and aqnb.com.