Inna Etuvgi - SpaceShip

SPACESHIP
fine art photography by Inna Etuvgi

A raindrop on a Cladonia stellaris lichen becomes a space capsule — landed, intact, glowing against an alien landscape. To the left, a large silhouette emerges from the blur, as if someone — or something — is already here, watching.

The photo is not just a visual metaphor — it points to a real story. In 2005, lichens were sealed in a capsule, launched into orbit on a Soyuz rocket — fittingly, a name that means "union" — and exposed to the vacuum and radiation of open space for fifteen days. They survived. Their secret is a union of their own: a lichen is a symbiosis of fungus and alga, two organisms fused into one. Their collaboration is so good that it gives them extraordinary resilience. The experiment lent real weight to the panspermia hypothesis — the idea that life can travel between worlds.

Through the macro lens, this quiet survivor becomes what it may have always been — a cosmic traveller, arrived and at home on unfamiliar ground.


ABOUT THE PRINT:

Type: Original Fine Art Print (Macro Photography)
Image Size: 30 x 37,5 cm
Paper Size: 33 x 41 cm
Paper: Archival Museum-quality paper, 100% cotton, 300gsm
Edition: 1/25
Authenticity: Signed and numbered by the artist; includes a Certificate of Authenticity.
Condition: New, shipped directly from the artist's studio in Sweden.


EXCLUSIVITY AND AVAILABILITY:

This specific edition (size and format) is an Exclusive Catawiki Release. The artist's larger-scale Studio and Master Editions are sold through premier online galleries; this size is not available through any gallery or platform. It can only be acquired directly from the artist's studio or through selected auction releases. Produced to the same archival standards as all editions.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Inna Etuvgi is a Swedish-Chukchi art photographer and digital artist, internationally recognised as an Arte Laguna Prize finalist (Venice) and a recipient of the Swedish Arts Grants Committee grant. Born in a remote Arctic village in Chukotka and trained in technical cybernetics, she began her artistic practice in 2020 and has since exhibited across Europe — in Venice, London, Barcelona, Palermo, and San Marino.

Etuvgi lives with aphantasia — she cannot see images in her mind. Her camera and AI serve as extensions of her visual imagination, allowing her to create what she cannot picture internally. Through macro photography she enters the hidden worlds of mosses, lichens, and dewdrops; through digital art she gives form to psychological states and inner archetypes. Both are rooted in a deep sensitivity shaped by her Chukchi upbringing — an instinct to feel into every living thing.

As art critic Tabish Khan notes: "Her work transports us to other worlds — both real and imaginary, but always in harmony with nature."