“Flower Spirit” Represents Kikimora at the 10th International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art

Olga Saretsky and Kikimora Studio will be at the 2022 installment of the Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art.MIAMI, FL, UNITED STATES, November 2, 2022. Olga Saretsky and Kikimora Studio will be at the 2022 installment of this biennial event.

On Thursday, November 3rd, 2022, the World Textile Art-WTA Organization is hosting its 10th International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art, which coincides with the Silver Jubilee “25 YEARS WTA”. After traversing diverse countries, the WTA Biennial returns to its founding city and highlights its itinerant journey and broad scope. Olga Saretsky and Kikimora Studio have been invited as well as other artists This exhibition is to be held at Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA).

“The inspiration for the piece ‘Flower Spirit’ comes from the idea of making a flower sculpture from recycling materials. A long time ago, my mother-in-law donated vintage silk flowers to me. I had thought about making some sculptures out of the flowers for a while, creating a piece that represents the natural world in general and celebrates flowers in particular. I seriously thought it was going to be easy but it was not. This is one of the most difficult and mind-twisting projects I have ever done.

Normally, it takes me about two weeks to complete a project but not this one. It took me about two solid months of arranging the flowers daily and coming up with shape ideas.

The most difficult part was arranging the flowers in such a way that they looked in harmony with each other. Everything matters. The shape of the flower and the multiple colors of the flower, all of it has to match somehow.

For the longest time, I did not know how the faces of the characters were going to look. Both of them happened from flowers falling on the mask from my hands in such a way that it actually represents the face.

I almost screamed in joy and surprise (after so many hours trying to find a suitable face for the masks ) and then, out of the blue, they just fell from my hand and formed the face. It was a mystical experience creating these characters.”

The regular process of creation in each sculpture/character for Olga Saretsky begins in her dreams and/or observation of the natural world and finding the right material elements that bring an idea to life. Most of her costumed characters are made of fabric, sequins, metal light structures, flowers, buttons, feathers and different sizes of plastic icons. In other words, the idea is conceived first and then she finds the right combination of elements to create an illusion into a real object.

The beauty of the ‘Flower Spirit’ piece is the work process using recycling vintage flowers, the material was given and the challenge was to find the right shape for the two characters. It might be easier to combine the recycling of flowers with something new, that is the particular value of solving a puzzle with a dormant image to discover.

The manipulation of different parts of this vintage piece was critical to find the shape of the face of the character, a shape that represents at once both the circle of life and the beauty of life.

For Olga, it’s an honor to show this piece in a prestigious celebration of the many diverse ways to create art with textiles from around the world.

The 10th International Biennial “25 YEARS WTA” will take place from November through December 2022. In it, we are jointly commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the WTA and a new form of participation, blending both celebrations into one concurrent series of events to offer a new version of our Biennial.