Varya Iashchenko

Hello!

Thank you for stooping by at my page.

I am an independent researcher and illustrator, a biologist with specialization in marine invertebrates and single cell organisms, I obtained my Ph.D. in 2009. In 2017 I began to work within illustration and illustration research at the crossroad of sciences and arts.To me the illustration is a tool that allows grabbing the essence of feelings,personal experiences and scientific questions alike and to render them comprehensible to a wide audience. My project Imaginary Children -  a phenomenological study of the path from sketching to emerging visual narrative about a prolonged period of unsuccessful attempts won scholarships from Norwegian Illustration Fund and Grafill. This work was then selected for a presentation at the 10th International Illustration Research Symposium Illustrating Mental Health and was subsequently published as a research paper in the Journal of Illustration. I am an author of a significant number of scientific illustrations used for publication and lab branding purposes. I had my works exhibited in both personal exhibitions and as a part of joint projects.

My work is not striving to make complex things clear, but is also calling to be mindful of the way society excludes certain types of experiences, be that due to lack of representation or the absence of an adequate language. Illustration then serves to develop the lacking vocabulary, which is missing for one to describe the questions concerning various aspects of life.

My working languages are English, Norwegian and Russian.

I live and work in Oslo.

Feel free to contact me!