Yelena Vorobyeva
Born 1959, Nebit-Dag, Turkmenistan
Viktor Vorobyev
Born 1959, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
Live and work in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Yelena Vorobyeva and Viktor Vorobyev are conceptual artists whose practice is rooted in the archival photography of the everyday, with a perspective unique to Central Asia. The artists have worked collaboratively since the 1990s and many of their photographic works portray an accumulation of everyday objects and subtle humour to reflect on social developments in the post-Soviet era. 'Necessary Additions: Home Archive' 2010 series, shown in APT8, is a series of intimate digital prints on paper with amendments in whitewash and pencil. While Kazakhstan was under Soviet rule, the Vorobyevs were obliged to use these photographs on official documents, a reminder of the impersonality of bureaucracy and its reduction of individuals to a quantifiable unit. Using these portraits, the artists insert small, subtle and humorous subversions on the official photographs — hinting at growth beyond carefully designated identities and borders. Transforming these objects of authority through humour and whimsical disruption, the Vorobyevs reassert the presence of the individual within an oppressive history and society.

Yelena Vorobyeva and Viktor Vorobyev have also worked with the QAGOMA Children's Art Centre to develop a project for APT8 Kids.