If your first thought is: that’s a reference to Kafka’s Metamorphosis when you see the works in this exhibition, then you’d be wrong. Instead, their theme alludes to a common Russian expression referring to “cockroaches in the head”, uttered upon encountering self-destructive or damaging behaviours. Often, the person handing down this diagnosis will note, sadly, that “we all have our own cockroaches”, to show empathy and to acknowledge the universal challenges of the human condition.

Through this visual metaphor, Constant Companions explores concepts of dysfunctional attachment, heredity, trauma and healing; both in relation to the artist and her family, and as a unifying thread running through humanity.

While the metaphor of cockroaches as pervasive negative emotions and beliefs is crude, it is also apt. Unwelcome vermin inside the head, spreading filth and feeding off it, thriving and multiplying – and nearly impossible to exterminate. Whether a single persistent cockroach or an infestation, their presence is not immediately obvious in daylight – much like the dark aspects of our personalities that are kept hidden behind civil facades – but does not fail to reveal itself on closer inspection.