The artist invites us to consider cultural tradition an endless cycle of words, images, symbols, and objects. The installation I Heard It from Birds consists of two fabric canvases and a dynamic object.
One of the fabrics had an ornament that exactly reproduced the Arkhangelsk towel ornament, which was then deliberately "destroyed" (washed away by water). The ornament, based on the letters of Russian shorthand, has faded. Still, here and there, some of its elements have become visible. These writings, as well as our knowledge of the tradition, are semi-transparent and unclear. Some have evaporated and flown away to gather new words and images.
We have heard these songs, in our dreams or in reality, from our grandmothers or from the birds, from the fields or from the rivers and the winds. We transform these songs into symbols, texts, and ornamental elements. We seal them into objects, make them the basis of rituals, preserve them, and bring them back to life through endless reproduction.
The second canvas is still (or already) empty. But we see a dancing shadow on it — the text appearing on the scroll, the "outlines" of the future embroidery. These are misty images inspired by nature. This shadow is our memory of the voices of the birds, which are ready to sound again.
The shadows on the cloth are from an object floating near the ceiling. It was plucked out of the darkness by a beam of light. The prototype of the object was a Pomeranian dove — a sacred object, a bird carved from wood. People used to hang such a bird in front of the boat as a sign of hope that a sailor would return safely from fishing in the White Sea.