Artist Alina Kim mixes oil paints with particles of Almaty’s polluted air. Because it is no longer possible to remain silent about it.

We have become used to the gray sky as a background. But for the female body, smog is not just discomfort. It is a blow to the reproductive system, hormonal balance, and skin condition. PM2.5 particles penetrate the bloodstream, the placenta, the future of our children. We breathe this every day, and the price of patience is our health. On the eve of International Women’s Day, we decided to share Alina’s works and her perspective on the problem of Almaty’s polluted air.

“I place a woman at the center of my works because I myself live through these states. Motherhood made the topic of air not abstract: I worry about my child, about what he breathes. Through female images I speak about our vulnerability and strength, about how the environment affects us from within. And about the fact that we have the power to change it.”

Alina’s art is a manifesto.

It is an attempt to reach everyone through beauty and pain.

“I want people, when looking at my works, to think about the air we breathe and how it can be fixed.”

Alina Kim:

“– I began using smog in my works – sometimes making the first layer by mixing it with oil, sometimes using it as a medium for stencils or for drawing on paper. It was a way to literally materialize the problem. To make visible what we inhale and what settles in our lungs.”

At the center of her smog series is a woman. Fragile and strong at the same time.

“In the smog series, for me air is not just an environment, but a symbol of freedom and the fragility of life. Through female images and the state of the city I speak about inner strength, vulnerability, and our responsibility for the space in which we live. For me this is not just an environmental topic. It is a conversation about the freedom to breathe, to live, and to feel in a modern city. I place a woman at the center of my works because I myself live through these states. I am a mother, and for me the topic of air and smog is not an abstract agenda, but the reality in which my child is growing up.

I feel anxiety for the future of children, for what they breathe and in what kind of world they will live.

Through the female figure I speak about motherhood, vulnerability and strength, about the inner responsibility that is born from love and makes us look forward and continue to breathe, no matter what.”