No Choice Cuts

No Choice Cuts began as an exploration of randomness and creative control. Do we actually choose when we create? Or do habit, semiotics, composition rules, material constraints—and unseen forces—make choices for us? What seems like authorship may, in truth, be the result of a much more complex distribution of intention.On one of the election days, amidst the rituals of public choice, we went to a secondhand book market and handed over the act of selection to strangers. We asked random passersby to name numbers. These numbers determined the magazines we would each work with—materials chosen by others, not by us.
From that point, the rules were strict: no materials beyond what the magazines gave us, plus scissors, glue sticks, and black or white A4 paper. No digital tools. No editing. No printing. Each artist worked only with the pages of her assigned magazine.
Across multiple creative sprints, we cut, composed, and assembled hundreds of collages—each one a moment in a longer dialogue.

About the Artists – VoDa Collab.

VoDa Collab is an artistic duo formed by Yuliia Poliska (Voitenko) and Nataliia Danova (Magda Nova). Their name combines their surnames—VOitenko and DAnova—highlighting the collaborative and equal nature of their practice.

Yuliia Poliska, currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has a background in illustration, graphic design, creative writing, and storytelling. Her work is shaped by a strong sense of structure and visual narrative, with a focus on the relationship between image, language, and meaning.

Nataliia Danova, also known as Magda Nova, is a temporarily displaced Ukrainian artist living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has a background in music performance as well as experience in graphics, multimedia, and mixed media. Her work explores composition, material, and process, often combining different artistic methods in an intuitive and reflective way.

Host or Publisher Alina Litvinova