Palimpsest review – ‘Unearthing is not always pleasant’

Anastasia Tribambuka with her work for Palimpsest. Photograph: courtesy of Anastasia Tribambuka

“Now ghosts of this past are mixed with the fabric of life that is shaped by East London.”

Artist Anastasia Tribambuka works from these ghosts, warping them into collaged compositions and delicate brushstrokes. Born in the USSR, she paints through her past lives, revealing the multi-layered reality left in the wake of chaos.

Bringing her works to East London, Tribambuka presents her latest series, Palimpsest, at Felstead Art. The colourful pieces are drawn over with bold lines, tracing where the artist’s subconscious has wandered across the pages in earlier iterations.

Something Fell Off the Map. Image: courtesy Anastasia Tribambuka

“‘Palimpsest’ means something that was reused or altered, but still bears traces of its earlier form,” explains Tribambuka. “I used collage as the main technique, as its random nature reflects a perceptual overlay. The concept builds on the 1980s Samizdat papers my grandmother printed on her old Soviet typewriter, children’s letters to a socialist magazine in Leningrad, tickets to Indian trains, and bits of Tamil newspapers from my soul-searching travels in my 20s.”

For Tribambuka all projects start from inspiration, and unearthing it is not always pleasant. “One of my shows was about female rage, as I was angry that the country that I used to call home had started a horrific war,” she says. “I researched this phenomenon in culture, politics and the workplace, interviewed other women and held discussion panels. It was a way to transform that feeling and connect with others.”

Weaving her way through complex histories, Tribambuka confronts ghosts, personal and historical, turning haunted memories into a space for imagination. “My previous show was about the sense of home for a migrant,” she says. “What is home when you’ve left home?” The walls that have fallen in her past are rebuilt on canvas, opening dialogues with viewers through fleeting, half-remembered doors.

We Are Not in the Future Yet. Image: courtesy Anastasia Tribambuka

The female figure, a recurring motif in her earlier projects, appears in a more obscured form here. Tribambuka uses these abstractions to build new narratives. “In these collages, the figure is more of an echo, another inhabitant of these liminal spaces rather than a central focus.”

East London comes through in the jagged lines and shifting patterns scattered throughout her work. “They’re totally shaped by East London’s mix of cultures and languages, stitched patches of old and new, rough around the edges but multi-layered and polyphonic.”

Though she is primarily a painter, collage has expanded her universe, acting as the foundation for Palimpsest. “I find collage fascinating,” says Tribambuka. “It bypasses the part of the brain that thinks it’s in charge. There’s something disarming, even anarchic, about tearing things up and glueing them back together. Nothing is sacred, and everything is just fragments, echoes,and accidents.” The exhibition also features two video works, where collage comes to life through animation.

This Is Not My Address. Image: courtesy Anastasia Tribambuka

The artist’s background in graphic design also plays a practical role in her practice. “It informs my approach to composition and colours, and comes in handy when I have to design catalogues or promotional materials. These days artists have to be their own accountants, marketers, photographers, agents, and designers, so I’m lucky I can deal with that efficiently!”

Ultimately, Tribambuka hopes Palimpsest creates persevering dialogues, ones that follow audiences into the community. “I always want to create space for a conversation, to ask a question rather than give an answer.”

As the fragments of her past merge with the textures of East London, Tribambuka’s work reminds us how memory, like collage, is never static. It tears, reassembles, and reshapes itself into something new, carrying echoes of what came before.

Palimpsest: A Record of Memory, Presence, and Absence runs until 6 December 2025 at Felstead Art | Trampery, 13 Rookwood Way, E3 2XT.