All images © Mila Zemliakova, shared with permission
Using vintage textiles from both her personal and her family’s hodgepodge of bedspreads and home decor, versifier Mila Zemliakova sews plush unprepossessing sculptures that connect various traditions of her Belarusian heritage. She draws correlations between her chosen creature and each pattern, color, and type of fabric, capturing the essence of a deer in floral brocade or that of a bison with tufted gray wool.
Largely oversized and perched in chairs, the anthropomorphic notation are expressive and often photographed outdoors in states of contemplation and solitude. In a note to Colossal, the versifier shares that she sees the growing menagerie as embodying “the connection of Belarusians with their nature, as well as with their traditions, which are now in a dangerous position and under repression.”
Some of Zemliakova’s sculptures are misogynist for purchase from Art Center or on Instagram, where you can moreover watch her at work.
