Lost Forest: My grandma’s distaffs
“My grandma’s distaffs” is part of a larger project with the bulgarian art historian and curator Hristina Bobokova. The installation created initially for the project starts from a personal memory.
The title plays with Bulgarian language – warm and, at the same time, a little funny and a little uncomfortable, as childhood memories often are. The project explores the forest as a symbol of memory and tradition, but also as a space in which humor can be a gateway to what is lost. Inspired by the image of my grandmother who was spinning, I enlarge a detail of one distaff dozens of times, turning it into a more than two-meter “forest”. The personal memory becomes a collective metaphor, and the disappeared craft – a monument. The question of what is lost is intertwined with the playful wink of the title: nothing is completely lost, if we can smile at it and recreate it.