Arts Thread

My textile design practice is motivated and informed by my Slavic cultural background. My work is grounded in the interwoven histories of rural material culture and post-colonialism in a Central and Eastern European context. Focusing on rural textiles, floral motifs in these regions have often served as ‘national symbolic guards’. While motifs and colours are apolitical, their context and placement can signify a political meaning. This has been in service of constructing what is considered ‘pure’ culture - the result of political motivations, the antithesis of what culture and tradition are in real life. These concepts, which are personally important, are at the core of my textile design practice.