“Born Free”
They say freedom does not come into the world by chance. It is born together with those able to carry it.
At the centre of this work is a very small life, fragile and vulnerable. It seems to float in a transparent sphere that recalls an eye and a universe at once. This is the eye of the world, watching attentively over the birth of a new life and seeing a person who from the very beginning carries something deeply important. Inner freedom.
The strelitzia — the bird flower — does not bend in the wind; it flies into it. A symbol of freedom, faithfulness and of strength that grows up through any darkness. Two strelitzias spread their petal-wings around the child, protect her, warm her, lift her up. Around them are the restless colours of space, as if reminding us of the world one has to enter.
But inside — silence.
This work was made in 2012 — long before the world heard the cry of children born to the sound of war. Today it resonates as a premonition. As a prophecy.
Because freedom is not born out of struggle. It arrives with the soul. A person who knows nothing yet of borders, fears or prohibitions. She simply is. And for that reason alone — she is free.
- YEAR2011–2012
- MATERIALOrganza, DMC cotton
- TECHNIQUEHand embroidery, the artist’s own technique
- SIZE50 × 34 cm
- PLACEKolomyia, Ukraine
