I  am a New York-based interdisciplinary artist. I was born in Crimea, Ukraine and raised in Israel. My fiber art practice involves labor-intensive, physical processes and utilizes traditional and experimental weaving. The work explores possibilities of the weaving as a theatrical realm of symbols both universal and personal.  Using painterly techniques, I create gestural theatrical elements, sculpt the yarn and weave it to tell a personal story of migration, kinship with the living beings and the Earth, and the ancient knowledge of weaving that takes the form of devotional act. Weaving sends one to the ancient origins of the craft, referencing the maker as a caring agent who stands in direct interaction with her surroundings to inform the work she is making. 

 

I use both materials inspired by my birth place and environments that I lived in and visited. Copper wire and the flax yarn were foraged and found in Ukraine. These materials were used to protect, soothe and empower the human body since ancient times. These material qualities attribute meaning to the weavings and often serve as sensory affirmations in the work. 

 

More recently, I use paper as a sculptural weaving material. I spin paper into a yarn which I further dye and weave into a three dimensional sculpture. This process has a slow ritualistic rhythm and the healing quality as I reverse the processed generic paper into a yarn that has an imprint of hand touch and an organic form, reminiscent of its initial origin. 

 

Throughout my practice, my teachers were amazing humans, places and environments that shared with me their offerings. I learned to weave from my teachers and predecessors who opened up the possibilities to understand weaving not necessarily as a flat rectangle but as malleable three dimensional shapeshifter. I learned that the quality, flexibility and texture encode the cloth with the capacity to expand, hold the information and transform itself. The fabric carries theatrical and performative elements and serves as a spiritual and political container for the continuity and re-imagination.