Cross Talk
2025 - ongoing
Oil on canvas
Cross Talk is an exploration of the connection between religious symbols and childhood toys — two systems through which a person learns to structure reality from an early age. Toys become the first "sacred" objects: a child assigns them protective power, builds rituals around them and through play creates a "potential space" (as described by Donald Winnicott): a zone between reality and fantasy where they feel safe.
For adults, this function can be taken over by religious symbols, more complex and collective structures that define the boundaries of morality and fear. Rituals become a way of imposing order on social life, just as a child controls an imaginary world through play. The project shows how personal memories of childhood toys intertwine with collective perceptions of sacred forms and how both systems help to cope with the chaos around us. This project is not about the symbols themselves, but about our inner need to have them.
For me, this work begins with a simple but universal experience: we were all once children, and we all had toys that meant something to us.
Within the project, I conduct interviews with participants, asking them about their childhood religious experiences and inviting them to show toys from that time. Each painting is based on these stories. I select and reinterpret symbols according to their answers and the methodology developed for the project. The project includes not only paintings depicting the participants' toys, but also their texts and collected answers.
At the moment the project consists of eight stories.
For adults, this function can be taken over by religious symbols, more complex and collective structures that define the boundaries of morality and fear. Rituals become a way of imposing order on social life, just as a child controls an imaginary world through play. The project shows how personal memories of childhood toys intertwine with collective perceptions of sacred forms and how both systems help to cope with the chaos around us. This project is not about the symbols themselves, but about our inner need to have them.
For me, this work begins with a simple but universal experience: we were all once children, and we all had toys that meant something to us.
Within the project, I conduct interviews with participants, asking them about their childhood religious experiences and inviting them to show toys from that time. Each painting is based on these stories. I select and reinterpret symbols according to their answers and the methodology developed for the project. The project includes not only paintings depicting the participants' toys, but also their texts and collected answers.
At the moment the project consists of eight stories.
