invented folksongs
february 14 | 7:30 pm
march 28 | 7:30 pm
the highbrow
1019 Third Ave, New Westminster, BC
tickets
By donation (suggested $20). Reservation required as space is very limited.
This project brings together the practices of three women artists whose different artistic and life experiences converge around questions of female choice and the boundaries of freedom in contemporary society. The exhibition unfolds as a space where personal narratives intersect with collective memory, allowing women’s experiences to be both transmitted across generations and reconsidered.
The project originates from Invented Folksongs, a musical album by composer and vocalist Anna Pidgorna, which approaches Ukrainian folk tradition as a living, evolving practice. Drawing on folk imagery and gesture while resisting fixed genre definitions, the music exists between the archaic and the contemporary, creating a framework for reflection rather than accompaniment.
Within the exhibition, shared listening becomes a curatorial gesture that activates dialogue across time. Roksolana Uhryniuk’s graphic works from 2018 enter into conversation with the music, while Olha Kriuchkovska’s illustrations, created in direct response to the album, articulate contemporary female experience. Set within a domestic space, the exhibition foregrounds tensions between private life and public norms, leaving the question of freedom deliberately unresolved.
The music
In “Invented Folksongs” Anna Pidgorna draws on poetic imagery and musical gestures from Ukrainian folk to create original songs exploring sexuality, gender roles, gendered violence, and female joy. Described by reviewers as “freak”, “gothic”, “freewheeling” and “feral”, the album fuses the raw energy of village playing with classical music techniques to create something entirely unclassifiable. The vinyls and compact disks include elaborate booklets with song poetry in original Ukrainian and English translation, accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations by Olha Kriuchkovka, with graphic design by Roksolana Uhryniuk
the art
Curated by Roksolana Uhryniuk, the exhibit features illustrations by Olha Kriuchkovska, created especially for this album, along with her earlier graphic drawings. Like the music, Kriuchkovska’s work explores traditional Ukrainian symbols within a contemporary interpretation of ink and pencil drawings. Kriuchkovska’s stylized graphics are contrasted by Roksolana Uhryniuk’s hyper realistic pencil drawings exploring images of traditional Ukrainian femininity.
the location
The Highbrow is a bespoke salon space in a late-19th century home, combining heritage West Coast architectural elements with contemporary industrial design aesthetics, vintage mid-century modern elements and mosaic inspired by traditional Ukrainian embroidery. The Highbrow is a very intimate venue with only 33 seats, so reserve your spot early.
artists
Photo by Anya Chibis
ANNA PIDGORNA | composer
Anna Pidgorna is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer, vocalist, multi-media artist and producer who combines sound, visual arts, and writing to create works that are dramatic and picturesque. She works extensively with opera and voice, draws inspiration from Ukrainian folk singing and the natural soundscape, and incorporates visual elements into some of her manuscripts. Her work has been commissioned, performed and recorded by soloists and ensembles in Canada, USA, Uruguay, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Poland, Ukraine and South Korea. She holds a PhD from Princeton University, an MMus from the University of Calgary, and a BA from Mount Allison University. Anna is the founder and Artistic and Executive Director of Pickle Underground.
Roksolana uhryniuk | multidisciplinary artist
Born in Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine, Roksolana Uhryniuk is a multidisciplinary artist working with performance, video, installation, drawing, and ready-made. In her practice, she explores the intersections of personal and collective memory, focusing on themes of trauma and adaptation.She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Ukraine and Canada, as well as in artistic residencies and laboratories. After emigrating to Canada in 2020, her practice expanded to reflect on experiences of displacement, vulnerability, and continuity, while remaining deeply rooted in the Ukrainian artistic context.Alongside her artistic practice, she engages in curatorial work, which she approaches as an extension of her artistic research. Through curatorship, she moves beyond the framework of her own works, engaging with the perspectives of other artists to deepen and broaden the exploration of questions central to her practice.
olha kriuchkovska | MULTIDISCIPLINARY artist
Olha Kriuchkovska is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and designer, born in Kherson, Ukraine and based in Tranås, Sweden, where she has lived and worked since August 2022. Her practice weaves together art, education, and ritual, focusing on themes of memory, loss, migration, and transformation. The materials and techniques she works with vary, as experiences and thoughts are never static; she searches for the medium and method that can most precisely convey the inner meaning of each work. At the core of her artistic interest are the traces of life left by people, nature, and time. Olha received her artistic and pedagogical education in Ukraine, where she studied fine arts, design, and teaching methodologies. Her works are held in private collections in the Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Germany, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Iceland.
production team
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER | Anna Pidgorna
EXHIBIT CURATOR | Roksolana Uhryniuk
PHOTOGRAPHY | Anya Chibis
donors
Friends of Pickle Underground