dancing around the void

Aleksei Usachenko

For my 2025 Winter Quarter Art and Design class at the UO I was tasked with creating a Zine based around a Haruki Murakami quote from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

 What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get in the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that's not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.” 

― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

 During my research I was pointed in the direction of a medium called cyanotype; the depth and emotion that the cyan and white evoked from the contrast of their different intensities to create silhouettes of ordinary objects and the ethereal aura they gave off greatly inspired me to collage images of cyanotype prints and other blue, black and white images into a set of mixed media prints to go alongside chunks of the quote. I wanted to evoke a special melancholy yet hopeful feeling. I have realized that blue is such a powerful color for emotion and can store a well of feeling in its hue. 

Some of the artwork was drawn by myself or those close to me and others were taken from Pinterest and public domain images. A citation of the images will be linked as a Pinterest board for the material that isn't owned by me. 

This is simply an example of the skills I've been working on and the design elements I've been taking an interest in. 

Please enjoy :)