APPIAS

APPIAS & LANG

Appias & Lang is a cross-continental collaboration between visual artist Appias Albina and artist Kyle Lang, developed through a field-based, site-responsive approach. The project unfolds outside the exhibition space, in remote and often inaccessible locations, where temporary image-based actions are created and later translated into photographic works. Working through a sequence of image-making, site activation, and documentation, the project shifts the encounter with the work across time and place.

Collaboration

We worked across different countries and media, developing the project at a distance and meeting only at key moments to realise the work on site. Each meeting became a point of production, where image, space, and light were brought together. The collaboration operates at the intersection of three visual languages: carbon monotype, light-based installation, and photography.

Field Concept

The work takes place in locations that remain inaccessible to the viewer — abandoned buildings, remote interiors, and sites rarely visited or preserved in their original state. Finding these places became a substantial part of the process: we searched for spaces with minimal human presence, often hidden deep in forests or isolated landscapes.

These environments were approached with care, with the intention of allowing them to continue existing on their own terms. We avoided identifying or exposing specific locations, understanding that visibility could disrupt their fragile condition. The aim was to preserve these places as part of a wider ecological context, where the work remains temporary and does not alter the site.

The work is created without an audience and exists only for a short moment. The viewer encounters it later through its documentation, while the original location remains unchanged.

Process

The process follows a precise sequence. Visual material is developed in advance through carbon monotype, forming the core of the image language. Among these, the figure of the Jersey Devil (Thirteenth) was created in response to the mythology of the forests of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while elements from The Time project introduced an additional layer of myth.

The Jersey Devil became a central figure within the project, emerging through interaction with the environment as a presence tied to the site.

These images are introduced into the space through light and projection, forming temporary installations that exist only for the duration of the intervention. The final stage is photographic work, where the projected image and the environment are brought into a single frame. Produced as black-and-white silver gelatin prints, these works fix the moment in which image and space meet. The photograph functions as the final form of the work, carrying the presence of the installation beyond its duration.

Expeditions

The project developed through a series of movements between locations. It began in Tartu, Estonia, during an artist residency, followed by early tests in Esna. The main expedition took place in the United States, across sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where the project reached its full spatial scale.

Much of the development occurred remotely, while physical meetings were dedicated to production on site.

Works

The resulting works form a connected body of images. Each photograph holds a moment that cannot be revisited, bringing together monotype, light, and environment within a single composition.

Position

This project marked a shift in how image, place, and time can be brought into relation. It established a working logic where the image does not belong to the site, yet cannot exist without it — emerging through temporary presence and carried forward through documentation.

At the same time, the project extended my practice beyond the limits of the sheet, moving from a surface-based image into spatial and environmental conditions.

Locations

2021 4 TYPA Printing and Paper Art Centre / Tartu, Estonia — artist residency, initial concept
2021 7 Esna Gallery / Esna, Estonia — early tests and first spatial experiments
2021 10 New Jersey & Pennsylvania, USA — main expedition and site-based work

EXHIBITIONS

2021 12 Museum of Supernatural History project, The Union of Artists, St.Petersburg, Russia
2022 12 Feminart, Est Art Space gallery, Madrid, Spain
2023 12 Traveling Letters ‘23: The Hologram / Titanic, Vilnius Academy of Arts / Vilnius, Lithuania