In 2005, Oksana Pasaiko releases the edition Short Sad Text (Based on the Borders of Fourteen Countries). It consists of two pieces of soap in which seven black human hairs are inlaid according to the pattern of seven land borders defined by humans. Pasaiko leaves the first issue of the edition in a public toilet in Oslo, the second is part of the collection of SMAK, the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent. Given the murky political state of the world, Pasaiko very recently added a few pieces of soap to this work.
For Short Sad Text (Based on the Borders of Two Countries), the artist meticulously lays out human hairs in the shape of the border between two countries. She made this work especially for the Kortrijk Triennial based on the borders between Syria and Turkey during the conflict, which is also featured in Erkan Özgen's video Wonderland. Oksana Pasaiko draws attention to the fact that the presented borders stem from human conflict rather than from natural features such as rivers, mountains, seas or lakes.
