There are projects–concepts, projects–symbols, projects–research, and there are projects–therapy, such as Familiar Ground. When I was creating these works — every one of them — I sought to find balance and a certain gentle structure that would warm with a sense of safety, acting as therapy and support.

Familiar Ground is about my search for inner grounding during a period when things were at their most difficult. It is a practice of accumulating strength — dense, like warm embraces. In these works, life itself is felt through color, which is mostly mature and experienced, soft and harmonious. For me, earth is about heaviness and continuity — the slow passage from season to season: awakening, blooming, fading, enjoying the fruits, and finally, sleep. It is about something solid, a point of support, the force of gravity. And of course, it is also about the material: returning to the classical language of painting, to a familiar territory. That is why part of the project includes six ceramic sculptures from the Fantastic Mushrooms series.

The works express different dynamics: from the warm, moving Serpen-time or Big Horizon to the philosophically gentle, cool Let’s Talk or the subtly vibrating Mycelium.

Alena Kuznetsova

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