Evgeniya Martirosyan / 3+5

Cork-based artist Evgeniya Martirosyan’s installation 3+5 presents artworks that examine how knowledge can be manipulated and how information degrades over time. A sculptural installation composed of books in multiple languages, alongside maps, personal documents and photographs, evokes a classroom environment shaped by control and repetition, yet destabilised by corrosion. Among the books is George Orwell’s 1984, in which the Ministry of Truth systematically erases and rewrites the past.

The exhibition title 3+5 refers to recent events in the artist’s country of origin, Russia. Following the 2022 escalation of the conflict with Ukraine, the word “war” was replaced by the phrase “Special Military Operation.” The coded message 3+5, referencing the structure of the Russian phrase “нет войне” (“No to War”, 3+5 letters), emerged as a substitute for a problematic in Russia anti-war statement. School history textbooks continue to be rewritten in line with state narratives, while other publications are restricted or removed from circulation.

‘War Is Peace’ (2024), a photographic installation created in collaboration with an anonymous Russian photographer, documents everyday scenes from the artist’s home city: dilapidated urban spaces, marching youth groups, state events, police presence, and the gradual spread of propaganda across public and domestic spaces.

Recent additions to the exhibition extend this investigation. ‘Unravelling’ (2026) consists of rolls of daily news printed on thermal paper, chemically stained and rusted, causing portions of text and imagery to fade or disappear. The remaining fragments form unstable and shifting associations. ‘We Will, We Will Rock You’ (2026) presents stained school shirts arranged in a marching formation, accompanied by projected footage of militarised youth exercises.

Rust, a process associated with inflammation and time, operates as the exhibition’s unifying material language. It spreads across books, photographs, documents and garments, infecting and corroding the surfaces that carry information. As this process unfolds, texts fragment and images degrade, and the stability of knowledge itself comes into question.

'3+5' has been produced with the support of an Arts Council Bursary Award, supported by National Sculpture Factory, with the assistance of Zbyszek Owczarek. The exhibition was previously shown at LHQ Gallery, Co Cork.


Evgeniya Martirosyan is a Cork-based artist and a current member of Backwater Artists Group, the National Sculpture Factory, Visual Artists Ireland, and Outlaws Studio, Cork. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and she has participated in several established residency programmes, including Monumental/Temporal with PRAKSIS (Oslo) and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Her works Chrysalis and Under Your Skin are held by the Crawford Art Gallery collection.

Recent exhibitions include: Context of Memory, Armenia–Diaspora selected group exhibition, NPAK, Yerevan, Armenia (2026); 3+5, LHQ Gallery, Cork (2024); To Ashes, solo exhibition, Laneway Gallery, Cork (2023), and GOMA Gallery of Modern Art (2022); New Threads, selected group exhibition, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2021).

All photographs © Jed Niezgoda