Local history zine about Vasilievsky Island, created as part of a workshop by the NIZINA project (Mayakovsky Library, St. Petersburg, 2023)
A tactile and visual exploration of Vasilievsky Island (St Petersburg), made in mixed media and entirely by hand. It combines different materials and visual languages to create a fragile and poetic statement about the place, its atmosphere and memory.
Black and white photographs and analogue photo cards, postcard and poster are found on the pages, capturing the architecture, streets and iconic views of the island. These images are woven into the fabric texture - natural linen or cotton fragments stitched or glued over the paper, in places complemented by hand embroidery or yarn. The stitches and threads running across the pages form waves, dots, lines - simultaneously referring to the topography of the island and the rhythms of its life.
The combination of the cold documentary nature of the photographs with the warmth of the fabric and threads creates a dialogue between the personal and the common, between the memorable and the everyday. In the zine one can feel the slowness of handwork, attention to the smallest details, to the imperfection and fragility of materials. It is not only a visual but also a tactile experience that invites the viewer to literally feel the surface of the city, catch its smells, light and wind - through fabric, paper, thread and photographs.
This format allows us to look at Vasilyevsky Island as a living organism made up of many layers - architectural, historical, emotional - and feel it in a new way, at the level of gestures and materials.
Black and white photographs and analogue photo cards, postcard and poster are found on the pages, capturing the architecture, streets and iconic views of the island. These images are woven into the fabric texture - natural linen or cotton fragments stitched or glued over the paper, in places complemented by hand embroidery or yarn. The stitches and threads running across the pages form waves, dots, lines - simultaneously referring to the topography of the island and the rhythms of its life.
The combination of the cold documentary nature of the photographs with the warmth of the fabric and threads creates a dialogue between the personal and the common, between the memorable and the everyday. In the zine one can feel the slowness of handwork, attention to the smallest details, to the imperfection and fragility of materials. It is not only a visual but also a tactile experience that invites the viewer to literally feel the surface of the city, catch its smells, light and wind - through fabric, paper, thread and photographs.
This format allows us to look at Vasilyevsky Island as a living organism made up of many layers - architectural, historical, emotional - and feel it in a new way, at the level of gestures and materials.
Vasilyevsky Island is absolutely my place of emptiness, water and air.
The warm colour of textiles mixes with wool thread embroidery and intertwines with monochrome photographs.
The gloomy Balabanov spirit and the wide horizon of the bay.
Late Soviet modernism and the scope of architectural thought frozen in the ruined idea of the houses of the Marine Facade.
Each page in the zine is folded into a jigsaw puzzle of a different, stark and seemingly lost piece of the island.
To start the walk from the sphinxes on the Universitetskaya Embankment, to cast a glance at the Quiet Walk, to move towards Sevkabel and come to the houses ‘on legs’, finishing with a walk along the ensemble of late sovmod panelled houses.
Private collection.
Contacts
I'm always excited about new opportunities, collaborations and interesting projects. Contact me to work together.
Email: fluctuation1996@gmail.com
