Nothing but gold, 2020-2022
When something frightening happened to me in childhood, my grandmother gave me a box from a high shelf. It contained buttons and other small, strange items. Playing with them I immediately forgot about fear. Each subsequent time, I knew that if something scared me, granny would bring out that little chest, and everything would be okay.
By nature, humans love things. As something possessing physicality and form, they are able to acquire superpowers. Packed with meanings and stories things are able to become a personal or a community mascots, amulets, religious symbols, symbols of power. At the same time, they become a kind of time capsule, a trigger. With each new encounter, a person is transported to that world, getting closer to those events or forces locked in them.
In the project, I create a series of sculptures - totems, talismans, magical forms. My works are a kind of ritual practice, that transforms an everyday objects into a medium that explores the relationship between humans and things, turning them into tangible embodiments of personal and collective stories.
My series is a reflection upon this physical part of our life. And the way, so to say, that we make gold out of regular things. Our personal gold which sometimes is hard to get rid of.
