CATALOGUECATALOGUE

In a world where our inner supports are tested by time and outside forces, family history becomes a platform for finding new meaning and inner stability. I return to my roots through a material trace — the lid of an old chest from my ancestors' house on the Klyazma river.

In every scratch, in the fading glints of copper and the grain of the wood, I find a reflection of their path, and their unseen support seems to reach me through layers of memory, time and space. Wild grasses burnt into the old wood intertwine like fragile threads of memory. The lace ornaments on copper and wood become a metaphor for family memory — hidden from the eye, yet open to those willing to discover it through touch.

The scent of wormwood oil soaked into the wood reminds me of the fabrics once kept inside, of a cosy wooden house, of my grandparents and childhood. Through touching its texture and contemplating the copper and wooden lace patterns that reveal themselves slowly under changing light, the work invites a deep, meditative dialogue with personal history and feeling. Touch and smell create a unique cross-sensory experience that goes beyond the visual and immerses the viewer in an atmosphere of memory.

The old chest, as a keeper-object, embodies both the fragility and the strength of family memory: partly lost, yet a firm support that became the foundation for rethinking.

“Tree” is not just a relic but a meeting point of past and present — an archive of experiences steeped in the scent of time, helping one search for a new centre of stability. By deliberately leaving names and images out of the family tree, I ask: can viewers see their own story and meaning in the Tree? Can we draw strength from sharing in someone else's experience?

Through touch, immersion in scent and the contemplation of intricate copper and wooden patterns that do not reveal themselves at once, I close the distance between personal history and the viewer, inviting an honest dialogue about our own points of support in a changing world.

Burnt into the “Star Map” panel is a vision of the cosmic circle of life — a philosophical invitation to see the world through the traditional lens of our ancestors, where time sounds as the eternal rhythm of nature and spirit, overcoming the fear of its passing.

The sky map draws on the ancient Russian understanding of time as a cyclical rhythm of nature and life, where birth and death are not opposites but transitions within a single cosmic cycle. Deeply intertwined with cosmogony and the imagery of constellations, this view takes us beyond the linear time of modernity and invites us to feel part of the eternal motion of the Universe.

A bunch of old keys on a rusted hinge beneath the keyhole becomes a symbol of safety and of unlocking secrets; the scent of frankincense soaked into the wood, a metaphor for protection and faith.