Red Sky (2025), Lyra Browning
Lyra Browning is a second-year student of Russian and History at The University of Cambridge. Alongside her studies, Lyra is a keen artist and has drawn inspiration from recent travels in Central Asia. Lyra plans to deepen this engagement during her upcoming Year Abroad in Bishkek, where she will be teaching local children and researching Soviet and post-Soviet political and cultural legacies in contemporary Kyrgyzstan.
Ghost Ships is a series of artworks inspired by Karakalpakstan, which Lyra has kindly given us permission to reproduce here. About the series, she writes:
‘In September 2025 I visited the small village of Moynaq in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Western Uzbekistan. Given that it now lies 150km from the shores of the Aral Sea, it is hard to tell that this community was once a thriving town, central to the country’s fishing industry. But there are traces. The endless sandy horizon is occasionally broken by strange, sad shipwrecks, slowly decaying beneath the cloudless sky. I was struck by the tragedy of the scene and made these sketches in response.’
Citizens!, Lyra Browning (2025)
Plural, Lyra Browning (2025)
God Saves, Lyra Browning (2025)
Horizons