Liza Premiyak

The topic of my Major Project was prompted by an essay I wrote at the end of my first year at the RCA, titled 'Sea-Sick', on sanatorium culture and architecture in Sochi, Russia. Since then, I've been interested in how recreation can be controlled by the architectures and spaces designed for it, as well as the difference between pre- and post-Soviet culture. Perhaps the latter comes from the fact that I was born in Russia around the time the Soviet Union collapsed. 

The first text I wrote for Critical Writing in Art & Design, on the meaning of the word 'prefab', sealed an interest in purpose-built temporary architecture. This reappears in the discussion of park pavilions in my major project and in 'Unseen and Unceasing' from the publication Ends Meet: Essays on Exchange, in which I trace old and existing telephone exchanges, buildings which are both architecture and infrastructure.

Over the course of the MA, I have also written about works by artist such as Allan Sekula, Amy Sharrocks, Dexter Dalwood, Dominic Hawgood and Stuart Brisley, as well as the photography magazine and collective Camerawork, which included Jo Spence, Paul Trevor and Mike Goldwater as some of its members. I hope to continue writing about both art and design for catalogues, publications and online after graduation.