This sculptural project is intended to explore hidden emotions, specifically those not considered socially acceptable. Coming from a family whose generations had been typically raised with traditions of Soviet-era thinking, she suffered mental pressure from those around her, truly believing that a certain range of her emotions had to be viewed as shameful. Golovenkina emphasizes the importance of having an accepting attitude and embracing one's own feelings in order to avoid the negative impact on overall mental health.

Socially disapproved human feelings are a fragile matter, I reflected this in the use of material - the work is made of gypsum and epoxy resin, imitating the look of ceramics. It is common in society, figuratively speaking, to put them in a box on a distant shelf and try to forget about their existence. We have achieved a certain level of skill at this. It works until the box bursts and all the displaced stuff comes out of it.

This sculpture encourages the viewer to treat their feelings with care, to accept them, to metaphorically reach out to them, to get to know and fall in love with them. They are not as scary as they seem.

This work poses a few questions:

What if it did burst?
What would happen if the thin threads broke and thousands of beads got scattered all over the space?
How much will it take to assemble and rebuild the object?

And who told you there was a box inside the beaded surface?

The artist also reflects on personal space issues based on her feelings. In early post-Soviet period, most apartments were still small and inhabited by people with little privacy. Similarly textured curtain dividers used to be quite in favor for space zoning, at least to create the illusion of privateness.

welcome to my studio

details

Beads, cardboard
29.5x11x21 cm

Fragile

What if?

Into the New Life!

about Valeria Golovenkina

e-mail: lerigolovenkina@inbox.ru

Gypsum, epoxy resin
31.5x11x16 cm

Cardboard, light-box
50x60x70 cm

"Return to sender"

gypsum, epoxy resin, golden leaf
11x11x11 cm

The title of this work reflects common attitude often found among people who hope their life will be different after moving to another country. Whatever the place, such a person bears a huge inertia of behavior patterns, mental complexities and habits. They will not see anything new behind a bunch of junk that has been accumulated over decades and will never get to enjoy life to the fullest. Even if there is a paradise landscape in front of him - no matter how hard this person tries, he will not be able to see it. Either way, they would have to deal with themselves first.

Elaborating on the topic of relocation, Golovenkina presents another work which makes use of the image of a moving box yet again.

One who with a deep sigh of relief has recently sent their belongings by post to the Heavenly City — a place for all expectations of future to dwell — faces the uncompromising red stamp that says “Return to sender”, which brings back to sobering reality.

This box cannot be opened - it is monolithic and by no means made of cardboard, but of much more durable and harder material. The box has turned from a container into an object, which demonstrates that it has become common for people to live under illusions.


The viewer is invited to speculate whether the edges and corners of the box were previously mended using the kintsugi technique, or whether the recipient has transformed a battered shipping box into an object of priceless experience