Alina Sladkovska

I came up with the idea for this piece while I was sitting at work, I worked at an online pet store and I had a small dark office that was always cold. Back then I was going to college in addition to work and it didn't leave me any time for my personal life, then I had a constant feeling of being cramped. And so while I was working, I was thinking how I could convey that feeling of being cramped, of being sad that you can't change anything, and I thought of fish. Fish in the water seem calm and serene, but when they are on land, all the serenity disappears and even by their appearance you realize how bad and cramped they are, no matter how much space there is on land. And probably then I associated this fish with myself, as if there was more than enough space, but the feeling of crowdedness, tightness and anxiety were always with me.