Warping Southern Mythologies
Medium: Cyanotype Photography
Greta Koshenina

Details fade upon waking from a dream; the mind forgets years of existence. As a multimedia installation artist, my work holds a moment and strips away the details, reminding us that what may seem concrete and captured is, in reality, liminal and ephemeral. I combine cyanotype, film, and poetry in my installations, creating an immersive experience that guides the audience through a meditation on the soft underbelly of family mythology. I stitch together cyanotypes printed on antique linens and archival paper to form cyanotype collages. My clumsy red stitches stand out, symbolizing the loss of a traditional, generational craft in my family.  

As a child in Water Valley, Mississippi, I explored streams and woods, searching for fairies and other mythical beings. Over time, my connection with the community became fractured as I confronted the realities of its insular Southern Baptist values. My art represents a journey to understand religion and spirituality from my perspective rather than the rigid and hypocritical viewpoint of the colonizer. I remain in Mississippi and retrace my past.  

My work explores the connection between spirit and the subconscious, as well as the personal and the universal. I weave my narrative with collective symbolism: dream iconography, Madonna motifs, plant materials, and family photographs. My artistic practice is rooted in rituals that deepen my connections with family, friends, and community. As an archaeologist of memories and dreams, I examine culture and my family’s story through a spiritual lens.

Greta Koshenina (b. Oxford, Mississippi) is a multidisciplinary artist, documentarian, cyanotypist, and curator based in Cleveland, Mississippi. Koshenina earned a BA in Classics and an MA in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Southern Studies Documentary Expression. Interested in the intersection of spirit and the subconscious, her cyanotypes and documentary films delve intothe ephemerality of life, womanhood, biophilia, and belonging. Koshenina’s work excavates and curates the symbolic remnants of stories, iconography, and beliefs that have shaped her. In July 2025, Koshenina will have her work in a solo exhibition at the Arts Center of Mississippi in Jackson, MS.