Covered scape
The photography exhibition «Covered Scape», curated by Paulina Stadnik.
Photography exhibition «Covered Scape» at the Rope workshop building. Saint Petersburg, May 2025.
The photography exhibition «Covered Scape» brings together two projects: «Scaffolded city» by Mitya Kharshak and «New Landscapes» by Chinese photographer and professor Yao Lu. Both artists explore the concept of the New Landscape — environments reshaped by human intervention.
Yao Lu addresses this phenomenon on a national scale, while Mitya Kharshak focuses on the urban fabric of his native Saint Petersburg. Through their lenses, the act of covering, sheltering, and concealing — whether historic buildings draped in protective mesh, scaffolded monuments, mountains of industrial debris, or entire altered landscapes — is reimagined into lyrical perspectives and new architectural symbols.
Their photographic observations offer a poetic reflection on the evolving city. Mitya’s photographs are documentary in nature, marked by graphic precision and a striking interplay of bright daylight and deep shadows, enhanced by a monochromatic palette. Through dynamic angles, he captures Saint Petersburg in a moment of transformation. In his City in Scaffolds series, one can sense subtle echoes of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s iconic wrapped installations. However, unlike them, Mitya does not simply aestheticize the urban scene. His work is driven by a deep interest in the shifting visual code of the city — the evolving signs and symbols that accompany its natural cycles of renewal.
Photographs from the project «Scaffolded city» by Mitya Kharshak.
Photographs from the project «Scaffolded city» by Mitya Kharshak.
Yao Lu’s photography landscapes, meanwhile, evoke the spirit of traditional Chinese painting. In his hands, photography becomes a supple medium — a bridge between centuries-old artistic traditions and the realities of rapid urban transformation. His carefully composed images, with soothing watercolor tones and meditative flowing lines, integrate the products of human industry into the environment, making the artificial feel almost natural.
Photographs from the series «New Landscapes» by Yao Lu (China).
Photographs from the series «New Landscapes» by Yao Lu (China).
Working in different cultural contexts, the two artists invite viewers into a thoughtful dialogue about the changing landscape of the Anthropocene era. Scaffolding, mesh coverings, and technical structures are rarely seen as elements of a city’s celebrated image. Yet through subtle shifts in perspective, Covered Scape encourages viewers to reconsider these fleeting, functional forms as lyrical components of the New Urban Landscape.
«Covered Scape» is both a requiem for the vanishing cityscape and a hymn to its perpetual rebirth.
«Covered Scape» exhibition poster, description & details. The Rope workshop, Saint Petersburg, May 2025.
Curator: Paulina Stadnik Design: Daniel Ripley Translation: Ivanna Lomakina Photo documentation: Vladimir Alexandrov
The exhibition was held with the support of Natalia Logutova and opened as part of the HSE University Partners’ Week 2025 (The Rope workshop, Saint Petersburg, May 2025).
