2025
Poza.buttya
Found river stones and framed Polaroids combine into singular characters shaped by pareidolia.
This work started with a single stone I found on the bank of the Opir River in the Ukrainian Carpathians. It looked so much like a human face that I stopped and stared at it for a while, but for some reason I left it there. I kept thinking about it afterward and eventually realized I wanted to go back and look for more.
So I did. I went on what I can only call an expedition, walking the riverbank and scanning for stones that had this same quality: faces hiding in natural forms. Pareidolia, basically. The brain’s habit of seeing faces where there are none.
For each stone I find, I shoot a Polaroid that becomes its body. The stone sits on top of the framed Polaroid print, physically attached to it, and together they form a character, someone who did not exist before the two pieces met. The Polaroid gives the gesture, the clothing, the world. The stone gives the face. Neither part works on its own.
Each finished piece is a framed instant film print with a found river stone mounted above it. They are all unique: every stone is different, every character is different.
