The Air Does Not Hold Us

In Spivak’s work, memory and lineage take form in surfaces that shimmer, fracture and hold traces of both time and touch. Utilising materials embedded with cultural and economic significance, Spivak explores traditional Ukrainian practices surrounding craft, food and family. His processes reveal that these materials refuse a fixed state, similar to that of a diasporic body refusing assimilation.

'The Air Does Not Hold Us' reflects on what it means to inherit a history that cannot be fully grasped, only carried forward. Through material, gesture and repetition, Spivak articulates a practice grounded in care and quiet resistance – where identity is continually formed through acts of holding and remembering. In the liminal space between rupture and continuity, this exhibition insists on the endurance of cultural memory, not as something fixed, but as something lived, negotiated, and sustained across time.

This exhibition has been supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants.