Juliana Zaharevich

Juliana N. Zaharevich is an MA Candidate at NYU Tisch Performance Studies. She holds a dual Master of Arts in Art History and English Literature from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She is inspired by her parents, a dancer and a civil engineer. She is a multimedia artist primarily working in dance & choreography, painting, sculpture & installation, and music videos. She almost studied astrophysics, and connects this field to her explorations of environment and space/time. She is a skier, car enthusiast, and die-hard rock fan.

Title of Project

Drifting space/time

Description of Project

This project collages experiences of being and relation with the ground. It puts side by side the details of the experience of a body, of both being and having one, and what it means to be a part of a whole that is ceaselessly shifting, sliding off itself and each other.

What do you do with a moment? Where you are in space and time occurs somewhat by chance due to factors rippling in their own ways, and somewhat by what you choose to do in each moment based upon the information you’re given and how you might perceive and interpret it.

When you’re in the ocean, do you swim? Can you swim? When did you learn? Do you swim facing the waves, or parallel to them? Do you tread water? Do you float? How far out are you? Are you conscious of what’s below you? Can you touch the bottom? Do you want to?

Everything around us is also a part of us, and yet we impact one another in a way that’s indelible and ineffable. The ground is always shifting, so how do we skitter or slide or drift over/ with/ off the side of the mountains/ dunes/ waves/ currents that carry us? The effort always leaves a mark or impression for a while to say something was here even if it’s washed away, or mowed down, or repainted, or carried away by a bluejay for its nest.

There is a lingering. A memory embedded and sensed even if a visual or tangible form isn’t possible. You are still here, over and over again.

When I’m skiing I’m dancing with the mountain. When I’m swimming I’m part of the waves at the shore. When I’m driving I’m dancing with the other drivers in/and their vehicles around. I’m seeing and feeling the map imposed on the land, where the pathways were eventually formed or roads forcibly created by demolition.

You’re listening to the radio, you’re feeling the bass in the body of your car through your driver’s seat and steering wheel, you’re singing at the top of your lungs with the windows down and the wind in your hair.

What do you do with a moment? Where are you in the wave? Are you on shore? Are you in a field? A forest? Are you in outer space?

Are you happy about that? Where would you go if you could? How would you get there?