Hedgehog
Collaboration with Nadiya Petrovska
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.
Size: 12 x 13 x15 cm
Its full name is "Czech hedgehog". For the first time, they appeared exactly where you thought, dear reader, in Czechoslovakia, and were mass-produced during the Second World War. They gained their most popularity in the Soviet Union. So when the full-scale invasion in Ukraine began, a large number of hedgehogs were simply drawn out from local historical museums. Its use is most effective in cities: one such product can block an entire street.
Emotional triggers do exactly the same. Everyone of us naturally strives for freedom, for exploration, knowledge, creativity and love. But it happens that moving along the roads of life, we notice that some directions are blocked. When the war is over, or even sooner, we will be able to look back, to the past, and reevaluate all the tragic events that happened to us. We will understand that each traumatic experience taught us something important and valuable. Then we will be ready to thank it and let it go - this will be the moment of healing. Moreover, we will be able to do this with all our "hedgehogs" and blocks of concrete, even if they have been lying there for the last 50 years.
Emotional triggers do exactly the same. Everyone of us naturally strives for freedom, for exploration, knowledge, creativity and love. But it happens that moving along the roads of life, we notice that some directions are blocked. When the war is over, or even sooner, we will be able to look back, to the past, and reevaluate all the tragic events that happened to us. We will understand that each traumatic experience taught us something important and valuable. Then we will be ready to thank it and let it go - this will be the moment of healing. Moreover, we will be able to do this with all our "hedgehogs" and blocks of concrete, even if they have been lying there for the last 50 years.
Series concept
The gift that no one would want to receive.
It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would want to receive such a gift, but unfortunately, our fate and nervous system do just that and leave us no other choice. War is traumatic. It will end someday, but triggers - certain objects, sounds, and places - will periodically return us to the feelings and states that we experienced and are still experiencing. They settle on the bottom of our psyche like a heavy block of concrete and will lie there as long as they are connected to intense negative emotions and feelings. Until we have rethought the events that have happened and understood what has changed in our personality and values for the better. Until the traumatic memories fit into neat row of blocks in the foundation of the structure that we have not yet become. It is impossible to run away from triggers, they can and should be discharged, before inherited by children.
