Polina Piëch, Aura Pyra 2025 (Printed 2026), C-type print on Fuji-Flex paper, mounted on aluminium, 176 x 122cm with frame, Courtesy of the artist and Art Elsewhere
There is a promise embedded in photographs: that to look is, somehow, to have been there. Yet what exceeds the image remains inseparable from the experience from which it emerged. Beyond the frame remain the movement of air, the shifting quality of light, surrounding sound, scent and the body's presence within the landscape.
Air becomes visible only through what it moves. In Piëch's photographs, branches shift, foliage dissolves and forms lose the certainty of their edges. Movement travels across the photographic surface like a brushstroke, its direction determined not by the hand but by the forces passing through the landscape. Blur is not a departure from what is seen but a register of invisible forces, altering the way the landscape is perceived.
Through the installation, the image extends into a spatial encounter: suspended branches continue to dry, gradually altering their material presence while releasing scent. The sustained frequencies of crystal bowls and gongs are felt as vibration before they are recognised as sound. Air I See explores how photography might make the invisible phenomenon of air perceptible through image, sound and embodied presence.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
POLINA PIËCH (b. 1996) is a London-based artist working across photography, sound and installation. Her practice explores movement in the natural world and landscapes shaped by the elemental forces of earth, air, water and fire. Working with analogue photography, Piëch embraces blur and texture to create images with a painterly quality.
Her installations extend this exploration through sound, scent and natural materials, creating sensory environments that invite reflection on our relationship with nature, time, memory and presence.
Piëch holds an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art (2025). Recent solo presentations include Painted Winds: Fall at Dawn with Roman Road for Photo Month East London (2025) and Painted Winds with Roman Road at Photo London (2025). Recent group presentations include London Art Fair with Art Elsewhere (2026), Echo Art Fair with AWITA (2025), Apsara Studio, CAIM, Ireland (2025), Vision London (2025), and Inner Landscapes at BBC Television Centre, London (2025).
ABOUT ART ELSEWHERE
ART ELSEWHERE is a London-based curatorial platform and advisory founded by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys in 2017. Through exhibitions, artist residencies, art fair presentations and independent projects, Art Elsewhere works closely with artists through sustained dialogue, research and collaboration.
Its programme is grounded in social and ecological discourses with a particular interest in practices engaging with migration, identity and cultural memory. Alongside its curatorial programme, Art Elsewhere encourages art patronage by providing strategic advisory to collectors and galleries, supporting informed collection development, championing emerging artists and presenting exhibitions and projects with cultural institutions and other arts organisations.
Polina Piëch, Sun Moves 2025 (Printed 2026), C-type print on Fuji-Flex paper, mounted on aluminium, 176 x 122cm with frame. Courtesy of the artist and Art Elsewhere
