BURNED — a digital video installation by Anastasiia Vorobiova.

In a post-apocalyptic world, human mutants fade away under the weight of their own actions. The work asks if we can still invent other modes of existence—new assemblages binding human/human and human/nonhuman life— or if the black intoxication of oil and war has irreversibly fused with our shared consciousness.

Conceived as a digitally rendered film, BURNED began from my personal need to express the looming catastrophe of humanity. I found myself completing it at the very moment when the devastating war in my country erupted—giving the work a new urgency and resonance.

Commissioned by KREIS Gallery, Nuremberg (May 6, 2022)
Presented at StudioXYZ, Vancouver (September 10, 2023)

Bio

Anastasiia Vorobiova is a Ukrainian artist, currently based in Canada, working as a new media artist and director whose interdisciplinary practice spans virtual reality (VR), performance, and immersive installation. Her projects often explore the transition into virtuality, continuous immersion in social media, and how adopted technologies reshape self-perception—extending the sense of “self” into digital space. Vorobiova earned a master’s degree from the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design. She later completed a residency through the Gaude Polonia program at the Academy of Music in Kraków, where she worked under the mentorship of experimental composer Marek Chołoniewski and joined GrupLab, a research collective focused on sonic and interactive media. Her recent projects investigate speculative ecologies, posthuman agency, and feminist technologies. Lemurian Time War (2023), a VR installation hosted on the VRChat platform, imagines mythological futures and draws on cybernetic theory. Vorobiova has served as lead VR designer for stage productions including Faust I & II at Theater Freiburg and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Stary Theatre in Kraków, where she integrated real-time VR avatar systems into live performance. Her works have been presented at festivals and institutions across Europe and North America. Vorobiova often works between theatre, digital platforms, and immersive art. She uses XR to imagine alternative realities, decolonize narratives, and foster emotional and political transformation. She has led workshops on virtual embodiment and avatar dramaturgy with organizations such as CultureHub (NY) and brut Wien (Vienna), and continues to explore how immersive media can support collective meaning-making.   

linktr.ee – nyafca