In 1979, a nuclear explosion occurred in the east of the Ukrainian SSR. The underground, “peaceful” nuclear explosion in the coal mine served as a test for utopian experiments. The territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the so-called Donbas, was a playground for the Soviet government. Almost a decade later, Katerina Motylova,  was born in Luhansk to a family of engineers who contributed to a utopian dream of progress and prosperity. Her medium is photography, another achievement of modernity. In "Decay of Matter", she photographs plants inherent to her homeland area—thorny, wild steppe weeds—and experiments with radiation by irradiating the film. This powerful and dangerous force destroys the photosensitive emulsion, leaving burnt marks on it. The result is always unpredictable, just like the attempts to control the atom itself, which teeter precariously on the edge between utopia and disaster. Katerina wants to highlight the paradox of our society, which is stuck in a race for growth and unable to cope with the scale of the man-made catastrophe.