A Polikarpov Po-2 biplane has been looping and diving a smoky trail above the Siberian taiga for some time, as it spells out a brand of Russian ice cream in the sky. Below is a woman who can hardly be seen through the dense forest carpet of horse hair, ferns and saplings. Around her Siberian Rubythroats sing from prominent perches and Fieldfares chuckle in the Cedars. A man walks past, sucking on a cigarette. People walk so purposefully through these woods, thinks Lilia Ivanova, but I am just waiting.
10 minute sound installation, 2004

One afternoon, in the summer of 2003, we hired an old aeroplane to write in the sky the name of our favourite brand of Russian ice cream, Inmarko, above Akademgorodok, the town of science, in Siberia. The town was built in the 1950s. It was Russia's attempt to compete with America's scientific advances. Russia's top scientists were relocated from around the country to this new utopian working environment in the middle of the Siberian taiga. Today the town is still home to the original scientific institutes, but they don't get the same funding as they once did, and many scientists have left for the west. The place has a faded and worn, if well kept, look. It is still surrounded by thousands of miles of forest, with the trees encroaching right into the very town centre. To move from one institute to another by foot it is necessary to cut through the dense ancient forest. This sound work captures a few minutes in the life of Lilia Ivanova as she stands quietly amongst the trees, whilst the plane we hired spells out each letter of the name of the brand of Russian ice cream in the sky high above her.
The work was exhibited at New Art Gallery Walsall in 2004. Elsewhere in the building we also exhibited Heather & Ivan Morison hired and aeroplane.... Lilia Ivanova reappears in this other work as the character featured on the second sign written wall.

The work can be listened to online by clicking here (for help about how to listen click here).