Rushnyk "Roots"

The rushnyk is a thread that stitches through the entire life of a Ukrainian. It’s used to swaddle a newborn and to cover the final path in death. It is a fabric that witnesses birth and passing. In this work, my family’s rushnyks, over 100 years old, do not just wrap me—they bind and cover me.
This is the physical sensation of history’s weight and, simultaneously, its embrace. I am bound by these threads to the past, covered from the unknown future. It is an attempt to feel myself at the intersection of all paths. The rushnyks behind me are the souls of my ancestors, whose hands touched this very cloth. It is a moment of being both protected and constrained by lineage, frozen in vulnerability and unity with the infinite cycle of being.

Project Roots" began with the full-scale invasion, marking a pivotal shift where my body transformed. It ceased to be an object of self-reflection and became an anchor in the turbulent ocean of modernity, a screen for collective trauma, and a point of resilience.?This project is my attempt to find a new code of identity, one not based on nationhood but on a deeper, spiritual connection to the land. Through rituals and myths, I seek to understand how subconscious spiritual symbols are invisibly woven into us. It is a visual meditation where the human body and the Ukrainian landscape merge, telling a story of the spirit, the power of roots, and the connection between us.?
Edition: Limited edition of 5 (1/5)