By replanting herself into a new environment, Martina Priehodová reinforces her ongoing thread of exploring origin stories (personal or planetary) and exercises worlding: a world-building activity commonly ascribed to childhood.

Nebulae, celestial entities of dust functioning as star nurseries, are a kind of ultimate worlding machine. Priehodová uses her hands to replicate and condensate a couple of fictional nebulae into smaller, digestible, spherical entities. They then squeeze and twitch at random intervals undergoing an uneasy visceral trial.

“The almost-aliveness of these vessels gives an unsettling, almost uncanny feeling. It represents a memory of an alternate world, something greater, unimaginable.

Martina Priehodová (*1999, Slovakia) is a Minerva Art Academy alumnus pursuing a Master’s Fine Arts degree in Reykjavík, Iceland.

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