Smell

Description of the techniques 

Cat, don’t go – there is an owl
Embroidered on the pillow
Cat, don’t purr – the graybeard will grasp you
God save you, cat!

Nanny, the candle is putting out
A cricket is chirping behind the furnace
I am terribly scared of that owl
Why had it been embroidered?

Anna Akhmatova

Photographic archives always inspire me extremely. Since I have found an old family album in my mother’s wardrobe, I have been impressed by this type of photography. Faded images with figures appearing like specters. Faces blur, faded shapes vibrate and a delicate scent lingers above them.

It’s the smell of time. I close my eyes and images begin to pulsate behind my eyelids. Using photomontage, I create a new reality.

Children’s fantasies are fed by the surrounding world and memories. The present is tangled with the past.  And now I see, I feel, that wax should be used to enhance the impression of distance and inaccessibility of people and places lost in time. The heated wax pours over the image and, as it is getting cold, covers the photo in a veil of oblivion. It depends on me whether I want to remove some of this wax coating or not. I touch selected parts of the photo with a sharp tool.  I scratch, I reveal, I hurt…