Welcome drink, 2026

Oleksandra Hrebelna  

The “11 PM" series is an artistic exploration of human vulnerability and privacy through the lens of light voyeurism. What do we do when we're left alone in the dark? While one person says a silent prayer, another searches the internet for answers to questions they wouldn't dare voice during the day. This is an honest and unbiased look at the many facets of our nights: from deep loneliness to intimate moments when true thoughts and hidden desires come to the surface.  
In this visual study, I am seeking an answer to the question: what if an outsider becomes the main focus of our inner obsession?
A person who accidentally entered our personal space and refuses to leave. A single glance or a brief meeting of eyes that, for some unknown reason, continues to live inside us. 
Or perhaps it's the other way around, and we're the ones becoming someone else's obsession.
In my opinion, these aren't two different events, but one and the same mechanism. You think you're locking the door from the inside to be alone, but in reality, you're locking yourself in the room with the person who has long since taken up residence in your head. 
You gaze at the object of your desire in the twilight of the room, yet at the same time you feel someone's invisible gaze piercing through your protective walls just as surely.
Sometimes fate is not altered by words or deeds. Sometimes a single glance is enough. So fleeting that it might go unnoticed, yet impossible to forget. It lingers somewhere on the edge of consciousness, sprouting through your thoughts, and over time begins to take up far more space than it should.

Perhaps every obsessive thought once began exactly like this.