Bouquet

The idea for this object has been rattling around in my head for a long time. Eventually, the initial image, the shadow of which is the Eternal Flame*, has shrunk from a huge star made of polyethylene and stuffed with bones, to a Victorian bouquet under the glass cover. Once again in pondering over the impact of memorial culture on consciousness, I seek to infuse the forms of pressing legacy with human emotions. To wrap bronze in felt, to make marble transparent like glass. This is a conversation with both my background and the textbook past, which manifests itself with bloodlust now. Some in this anxious present day are full of resentment or tears of regret, others angrily and passionately tear down any remains of outmoded systems that only seem romantic and innocent. The relationship with history is always controversial: how not to deny it, but not to let it fester? My attention has always been drawn to the solitary wilted flowers at the foot of monuments. Such bright spots of someone’s personal relivings and memories against the grey hulk of propaganda.

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*Eternal Flame is a type of war memorial. Star-shaped monuments are mostly common in the countries which used to be a part of the Soviet Union.