ВОЛЯ is a digital sculpture that translates the Ukrainian embroidery alphabet into soft-body 3D letterforms. The word ‘volya’ (freedom/will) is embedded within the Ukrainian coat of arms, the trident, and represents the nation's enduring struggle for sovereignty. This work renders the word as four hanging, knitted letters that exist in a state of simultaneous formation and dissolution.
Created using Houdini's Vellum cloth simulation system, the letters are treated as fabric rather than typography. Each form is textured to resemble hand-knitted yarn, with hundreds of fine threads cascading downward as if the structure is unraveling. The letters hang suspended against a black void, rendered in deep crimson and red — colours pulled from traditional Ukrainian embroidery palettes.
The work explores embroidery and code as parallel systems: both are outcome-driven symbolic languages that operate through repetition, pattern, and precision. By moving the embroidery alphabet from physical cloth to digital simulation, the work addresses the vulnerability of cultural objects in wartime. The digital realm becomes a site of preservation and resistance — a space where ritual language can persist even when physical monuments are destroyed.
Like the rushnyk in command:/ weave rushnyk, this work treats symbolic patterns as executable code. But where the rushnyk projects light onto thread, ВОЛЯ exists entirely as data — a digital spell woven to manifest freedom through language, simulation, and soft-body physics.
