Restraining release

Glass has a unique ability to convey emotions and appeals to the human perception of form, color, and light in space. The harshness and brutality of my objects are compensated by the beauty of the details and the fragility that make one think more about vulnerability in general and the vulnerability of the individual human being. Once, like many Russian children, I tried out a whole bunch of different clubs with my grandmother’s “help” and knew exactly what I didn’t want to do (play the piano) and what I wanted — to be an artist. When I enrolled at “Mukha,” everyone was going to “textile design” and “ceramics and metal,” mature men chose sculpture, and glass was not popular. Only later did I realize that, unfortunately, there was almost no technical foundation for mastering this material, which is extremely demanding in every respect, in St. Petersburg, and indeed in Russia. But I was convinced that glass is a unique sculptural medium.”Text: Maria Koshenkova