15/ Duckie

2018
By Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev
Duration: 8:40 min.
Recommended by Meruyert Kaliyeva

How does this work investigate “hope?”
Yelena and Viktor Vorobyevs’ practice focuses on the ephemeral and quotidian details of daily life, local subjects that have been often overlooked. By taking the found children’s toy duck from its context of a frozen river in March and re-inserting it in a new context - the summer flow, the artists give us hope for change, however small and insignificant it may be.

About the work:
“Duckie - is a documented action, that took place from March to August 2018. In March, when snow and ice began to melt on the Vesnovka River in Almaty, we examined the concrete riverbed of the city river. Among the garbage we saw a children's toy - a bright yellow duckie. We cut a piece of ice that was under this toy, brought it home and put it in the freezer.

A few months later, at the height of summer we took it out from the freezer and brought it to the same spot we took it from in spring. Spring water was replaced by summer flow, and the March water, which used to surround the duck was gone. But we stopped this process - we put a Freeze on the situation - and now by our will, March ice melted in August, and with it, the duckie will float along the city stream until it runs into a pile of garbage again.” —Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev