In her conceptual practice—which incorporates photomontage, painting, and
writing—Ostoya revisits the histories of lesser-known avant-garde movements in East-Central Europe in parallel with their well-known Western counterparts, pairing pseudomorphic (visually similar) subjects in compelling new images. In one triptych she foregrounds the critical role women played in twentieth-century culture by matching two film icons: French actress Brigitte Bardot and Polish movie star Kalina Jedrusik. In another work she plays with the idea of true and false tears, juxtaposing a 1931 picture of model Wanda Hubbell by photographer Germaine Krull with a still from Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader’s 1970 silent film I’m Too Sad to Tell You. And she compares images from censored films: Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s 1929 Surrealist short Un Chien andalou and David Wojnarowicz’s Untitled (Desire) of 1988. Using the photographic image as purveyor of memory and symbol of modern culture, Ostoya opens history to uncharted narrative paths.