Elena Kalkova
Elena Kalkova is a multimedia artist and researcher of Post-Soviet Art History. Her works include writing, drawings, collages, installations, textiles and working with archives. In her practice she explores feminism and construction of gender in the Post-Soviet space and complex relationships with home and family, especially between different generations of women of the same family.
Kalkova’s research lies primarily in the field of feminist and queer art and art of resistance and translation. She holds an MA in Global Arts and Cultures from RISD and is currently working on her MFA at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).
Academic areas of interest
Post-Soviet Feminist and Queer Art, History of Gender Construction in the Post-Soviet space, Decolonial Voices in the Post-Soviet Art, Context and Artistic Translation
Courses
Fall 2023 Courses
THAD H101-21
THAD I: GLOBAL MODERNISMS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This is a required course for all first year and transfer students to introduce them to global modern and contemporary art, architecture and design in the period between 1750 and the present. The course addresses modernism as a global project, presenting several case studies from across the world that unfold to show how multiple kinds of modernism developed in different times and distant places. By presenting alternate, sometimes contradictory stories about modern and contemporary art and design, along with a set of critical terms specific to these times and places, the class aims to foster a rich, complex understanding of the many narratives that works of art and design can tell. With this grounding, students will be well positioned to pursue their interests in specialized courses in subsequent semesters.
Registration process: First-year students are registered into sections by the Liberal Arts Division.
Transfer and sophomore and above students should register into the evening section offered in the fall.
For schedule conflicts during lecture times, please contact the Academic Programs Coordinator in the Liberal Arts Division office. For issues with registration, contact the Registrar's office for assistance.
Major Requirement | BFA
THAD H101-22
THAD I: GLOBAL MODERNISMS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This is a required course for all first year and transfer students to introduce them to global modern and contemporary art, architecture and design in the period between 1750 and the present. The course addresses modernism as a global project, presenting several case studies from across the world that unfold to show how multiple kinds of modernism developed in different times and distant places. By presenting alternate, sometimes contradictory stories about modern and contemporary art and design, along with a set of critical terms specific to these times and places, the class aims to foster a rich, complex understanding of the many narratives that works of art and design can tell. With this grounding, students will be well positioned to pursue their interests in specialized courses in subsequent semesters.
Registration process: First-year students are registered into sections by the Liberal Arts Division.
Transfer and sophomore and above students should register into the evening section offered in the fall.
For schedule conflicts during lecture times, please contact the Academic Programs Coordinator in the Liberal Arts Division office. For issues with registration, contact the Registrar's office for assistance.
Major Requirement | BFA
THAD H257-01
DECOLONIAL FEMALE VOICES IN POST-SOVIET ART
SECTION DESCRIPTION
What does it mean to be Post-Soviet? And what does it mean to be a Post-Soviet and (Post-)colonial? What does it mean to be a Post-Soviet and (Post-)Colonial woman? The course would attempt to talk about the variety of female voices from the Post-Soviet spaces of the Eurasian borders and will engage in theorizing the Post-Socialist (Post-)Colonialism through fiction, art and theory. We will look at the texts of Madina Tlostanova and explore how artists such as Taus Makhacheva, Aidan Salakhova, Almagul Menlibayeva, Umida Akhmetova and others resist and rethink their Soviet past. The course will include readings, a field trip and Zoom visits from artists/curators.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective