Charcoal drawing, 88 x 900 cm, 2026 - fragment
Nükte is a Kazakh word for full stop—a punctuation mark appearing at the end of a sentence. It derives from the Arabic word “noqta” (mark, dot, spot). Starting with the etymology of the word, the animated film explores the incognisable presence of radiation in a landscape. An explosion does not become a singular event but signifies the emergence of post-nuclear spacetime, the birth of a new landscape, where full stop is no longer possible.
Through metamorphoses of recognisable figurative shapes into simplified or cryptic forms, the film represents my attempts to find a visual language for the impact of radiation, for which no signifiers are enough.
The video also reflects on the embodied memory of my mother, who experienced nuclear testing near Semipalatinsk as a child. She remembers the sensation of the ground shaking during explosions, which she associated with being rocked in a cradle. Reflecting on this embodied childhood memory, I ask what a lived experience of nuclear testing could be carried in the body.
This film is a research-in-progress; the first two parts of it are presented at the exhibition Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities at Framer Framed Museum held as part of Sonic Acts Biennial 2026.
