Shahrokhshahi explores the slippery terrain of Ukrainian identity through an engaged, embedded and poetic approach to social documentary made on the frontlines of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Wet Ground is a long-term body of work by British-Iranian artist Aria Shahrokhshahi, developed through repeated stays living and volunteering in Ukraine since 2019. Made from inside the war rather than in response to it, Shahrokhshahi’s activist approach rejects spectacle in favour of proximity, focusing on the rhythms, contradictions and fragile continuities of daily life shaped by prolonged violence and uncertainty.

Shot in stark black and white, Shahrokhshahi moves beyond the visual shorthand of war imagery to present scenes that are often inscrutable, absurd, domestic, performative or oblique. A recurring focus on youth and subculture finding ways to survive and thrive reflects the radical and improvised paths life in Ukraine takes in the present moment. Wet Ground lingers in the spaces around conflict, where threat, loss and anticipation shape the daily existence of a generation of young Ukrainian men and women, even as they continue to carve out moments of resistance, rebellion and joy.

305 x 280 mm, 144 pages, 70 tritone plates
Section-sewn debossed landscape hardcover with tip-on
With a poem by Charlotte Shevchenko-Knight
Edited by Sarah Chaplin Espenon
Designed by Loose Joints Studio
2026 
ISBN 978-1-912719-74-7