A solo exhibition of new work by Neuroscience major and Visual Arts minor Marie Sirenko, who provides the following background and description of her show:
My parents moved from Ukraine to America in 1992 with a 2-year-old son. They intended to go back after my dad got his graduate degree, but with the political and economic instability that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union, their family and friends advised them to stay in America. My grandparents took turns coming over to help raise my brother, and eventually immigrated as well.
Many tropes surrounding immigration focus on the idea of having to leave the old country in exchange for a better life. They often focus on the transition from the old country to the new. In Over the same old ground, I wanted to focus on my parents’ movement across America after immigration, because for a long time, life was much, much harder for them than it had been in Ukraine. It took almost a decade, many cross-country moves, and many sacrifices until they felt stable enough to have two more kids, my second brother and I. It wasn’t until then that they decided they wouldn’t move back. Even while they enjoy their life in America now, they still reflect on their times in Ukraine as some of the best of their life, despite its challenges.
Taking road trips across many of the same places my parents had driven through and painting family photographs from those years has helped me better understand my parents and what they experienced. It has also made me reflect on just how different my experience in America has been as an American-born, native English speaker with a life built upon the sacrifices my family had already made.
The title of the show comes from the lyric of a Pink Floyd song. It refers to the paralleled paths of my family and me across America. The band is my dad’s and my favorite, and their music has been the soundtrack behind many of these drives across the decades.
Exhibition Details
The exhibition is free and open to the public; no tickets required. The CoLab is open daily 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Directions
Get directions to the CoLab, located on the Forum level of the Lewis Arts complex.
Accessibility
The CoLab is an accessible venue. Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at 609-258-5262 or email LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week in advance of the event date.
