Guardians of the Time Portals is a speculative research project presented as a fictional archive. Through prints, publications and recovered artifacts, it documents an ongoing investigation into the entities known as the Guardians of the Time Portals.

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^{THE WORK EXPANDS VERA KOSS’ LONG-TERM INTEREST IN GRAPHIC STORYTELLING, WORLD-BUILDING AND TACTILE EXPERIMENTATION. WORKING ACROSS ILLUSTRATION, ZINES, PRINTMAKING AND NARRATIVE SYSTEMS, SHE OFTEN CREATES FICTIONAL ECOSYSTEMS THAT EXIST SOMEWHERE BETWEEN MEMORY, SPIRITUALITY AND SPECULATIVE FUTURES.}

The project consists of thirteen A3 linocut prints, research zines, recovered artifacts and supporting graphic documents. Together they form the archive of an investigation into mysterious entities known only as the Guardians of the Time Portals. The Guardians themselves have never been directly observed; only the traces they leave behind and the objects associated with them can be documented.

Visitors encounter evidence rather than direct representations. Transparent surfaces suggest the unstable boundaries between temporal layers, while every print functions as a recorded trace rather than a depiction of the Guardians themselves.

Within the research, linocut serves not only as a printing technique but as a method of artifact stabilization. Objects associated with the Guardians are believed to drift continuously through temporal portals and cannot remain in one timeline indefinitely. Creating a physical imprint temporarily anchors an object within the present, allowing it to be documented before it disappears again. The prints therefore function simultaneously as artworks and as pieces of research evidence.

The archive includes:

1. thirteen A3 linocut prints documenting three Guardians

2. six research guide-zines cataloguing recovered artifacts and Guardian characteristics

3. relief-printed artifacts used for temporal stabilization

4. graphic documentation of portals, temporal activity and recorded traces

5. supplementary research material

ICONS OF THE GUARDIAns

Research Note

Every Guardian is identified only by a numerical designation — Guardian 1, Guardian 2 and Guardian 3. Personal names have never been recorded.

Each Guardian can only be studied through a small group of associated objects. These artifacts appear to mediate their interaction with temporal portals and possess distinct behavioural characteristics documented throughout the accompanying guide-zines.

Exhibition identity

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EXHIBITION

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ZINES

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RELICS OF THE OBJECTS (FOUND DURING EXPEDITION)

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Archive Record 07

The original linoleum matrices used to produce the three Guardian portraits have since disappeared. Their whereabouts remain unknown. According to the current research hypothesis, prolonged exposure to this timeline eventually causes stabilized artifacts to return to their original temporal state.