Yana Ushakova

Autoanastomoses Series

Most recent series, “Autoanastomosis,” is inspired by anastomosis, defined as "a cross-connection between adjacent channels, tubes, fibers, or other parts of a network." It's a surgical technique used to piece together body parts and rechannel blood flow. I reshape my own understanding of the body without the male gaze. Inspired by my experience on chemotherapy, I focus on the beauty within today’s body of survival, vulnerability, destruction, and recovery. I turn my subjects inside out to expose their true nudity in various stages of life, health, interactions with others or self. They are mangled, tangled, dismantled, and reassembled but I strive to portray my subjects as self-possessing, perhaps discomforting to the viewer in their own self-assertion, dissection, and contortion.