Immersion into the past and our memories, including inherited memories, is sometimes so powerful that they affect us more intensely than the visible reality in front of us. There is a core story to my newest series of works – my grandparents' tale: just married, with a newborn child, they were seperated by the war, one in the front line and the other in the poverty of evacuation. The tiny thread that maintained their love has survived till nowadays – thousands of exchanged letters with warm endearments, mutual support and tenderness.
Writing and receiving letters is a form of relationship that is almost entirely lost nowadays, yet it is a long-lasting testimony to relationships, something that contemporary relations can not substantiate in a tangible form. The letters are also an evidence of the time one person devotes to another. It is something we do not do nowadays, our day-to-day communication is short, fractured, careless, time-saving.
Thinking of the new “smartphone” generation that has to a large extent lost their connection to the past, through my work I am trying to create a bridge between the ages of family photo albums and letters, and and the current age of instagram.
The central image of the series is the relationships, the evidence that they have left and that still influence the descendants. Perhaps it is essential and beautiful to stop at times and look at the love of two young people, the winding path of life through the evidence they have left – letters, with signs of foxing, photos, that still have an impact on us and show us who we are are and where we come from.
For the inspiration of the artworks there have been used authentic letters and photographs from my family archives.