Call Me Usha @Sofia Art Gallery

From The Big Bang Series, Black and white photography, silver gelatin print, 1996

_highlights

_in her work, Usha is led by the desire - being in a process of search is essential for her; "Who am I?" is her leading question
🖤 a very intimate exhibition, it unveils quite personal experiences, part of her search of herself;
🖤 it's inspiring and empowering to witness the way she uses photography in her life - especially in the context of very hard times in the 80s and 90s. Her work is indeed experimental and avantgarde for that time and it's empowering to see that she managed to continue going on - even though she has been struggling a lot; her art looks and feels emotional;
❞ When you realise you are no one - then you can exist freely. - Usha, 2023

_about

A retrospective exhibition by Stanka Tsonkova – Usha
Curator // Vera Mlechevska

For people who experience the world through art, there is no starting point or end destination to their journey. Stanka Tsonkova – Usha began working with classic black and white photography in 1974 and has since crossed all possible boundaries set by this medium. Her photography is her gaze, her hands-on presence in the process, her touch on the paper, her play with chemistry.
Her art is a reflection of emotional flights and painful falls, wanderings, search of the self and “scrutiny of the faces behind which friends hide”. Although Usha was actively involved in artistic life until the 1990s, she was often alone – she was found too experimental by the photographers, and was alien to the post conceptual artists at that time. Her talent, however, did not go unnoticed, and in 1986 she was awarded the Grand Prix at the festival in Royan, France, in the Salon International of the Research Photography section; later on, in 1989, she received the Grand Prix at the same festival, and in 1990 she participated in the FotoFest in Houston, USA.
In a man’s world, women in art pay a high price, especially when life chooses for them. So, Usha disappeared from the scene for a long time. Japan, where her friendship with Eikoh Hosoe took her, was for Usha the island of contemplation and humbling. At his invitation, she held an exhibition in Shadai Gallery, Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics.

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