Mikhailov’s early series from the 1960s and 70s frequently depicted the artist’s friends, acquaintances, and partners in intimate, often sexualized situations, alongside more documentary images of day-to-day existence that are decidedly devoid of the valor and glorification that defined Soviet socialist realism.

His slideshow, Yesterday’s Sandwich, literally overlays these two modes of image making. Mikhailov superimposed two 35mm slides together in the same frame to create juxtapositions. The approach was based on the deliberate pursuit of change, and an assemblage of conflicting meanings that reflected the different layers and contradictions of Soviet society.

Begun in the wake of the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, and partly inspired by Thomas Mann’s novel Death in Venice, the video slideshow In Search of Windows of Opportunity. Exodus, 2020-21 shows a series of two images placed side by side. Images taken over the last 10 years are brought into dialogue with one another, exploring our understanding of beauty, mortality, and both the resilience and fragility of human life. The body is most prominently depicted, some of which have been transformed – by injury, plastic surgery or old age. They are joined by representations of bodies from allegorical paintings and sculptures, children’s dolls, mannequins and public monuments – both heroic and kitsch.