Eye

The ruins on which the project is presented are a symbol of impermanence, and show the transitory nature of existence and destruction caused by both natural forces and human intervention. 

Knitting, the centerpiece of the project, serves a dual purpose: as a form of reflection as well as a way to connect with the past and contemplate the future. 

Symbolizing the relationship between the environment and ourselves, the threads weave these worlds together, bridging the gap between our inner self and the outside world.

The main goal of this project is to encourage the viewer to think about the changing relationship between the outer and inner worlds of man, and to reflect on our coexistence in a world undergoing transformation.

Together with the artist Vera Sanina-Gvozdikova we realized a series of site-specific objects in several locations in Batumi, Georgia. We both lived in this city for more than a year and a half and accumulated our own experience of interacting with the environment. The city became a place for them to reflect on the past, their own and collective, before and after February 2022.

In addition to the retrospective, we could explore the new space of a small town by the sea with all its inherent features. The city demanded attention to itself, but paradoxically, it did not take away energy, but gave it to us. It was conducive to long walks through the streets, whether for mundane purposes (shopping for groceries, looking for a shoe repair store or a clothing store) or contemplative, without any particular end point at all. During such a stay in the streets of the city it was possible not only to record for oneself what was directly seen and felt, but also to go beyond it: to try to think about the future, to plan creative projects. Thus, the city literally had a therapeutic effect.

The desire to creatively reflect on this experience, to express gratitude to the city that accepted and enriched us before we moved out of it, led to the beginning of joint work. Actual forms were chosen: a window frame with knitted elements (Maria Kutuzova) and a small sculpture made of self-flowing clay (Vera Sanina-Gvozdikova). Possessing archetypal potential, together these images (the human figure and the window) gave rise to many variants of reading. Most generally, they represent the image of a person immersed in self-discovery, in analyzing the inner and, at the same time, in contemplating the outer: the window acts as a metaphor for the complex weave of experience specific to a given period of life, a frame of thinking.

During an intuitive drift through the streets, locations were chosen to match the mood inherent in the works.

A man in a temporal space. The window suggests that he is, after all, in some kind of dwelling.

Unlike the ascetic space, which does not reveal the inner world of the little man, the window is a complex weave of experience specific to a given period of life — it is a knitting of encounters, impressions, thoughts, his way of looking at the outside world, his frame of thinking.

This is the boundary, the junction of the external and the internal, where the ability for reflexion is born through their interaction. In addition, on the basis of the actual state, a certain project of the future emerges, set by the experience of the moment. However, what this reflexion and the future are remains encoded for the viewer.

Maybe the man is remembering the past or is still frightened by the past changes that brought him to this shelter. Maybe he doesn’t want his life to be rebuilt again.

Maybe he’s watching as someone else who was close by has already found ways to move on, and he’s still stuck in a daze.

Perhaps he’s just admiring something for which he can feel gratitude.

We don’t know what exactly this motionless man is going through, just as we cannot decipher the “writing” of a window frame unambiguously. We can only assume what he has experienced or is experiencing — we too are looking at him through the same frame, and we have our own free associations.