Cothinkers Annual Prize 2021: Spotlight Polina Osipova

27 — 30 October, 2021
Hoxton Gallery, London

Press highlights: Dazed, i-D, Hunger, SHOWstudio, The Calvert Journal

Based in St Petersburg, Polina Osipova belongs to the Chuvash people, an indigenous Russian ethnic group with roots to the west of the country’s Volga river. The self-taught artist inherited her interest in embroidery from her Chuvash family — applying their traditional knowledge to sculptural pieces, hand-crafted millinery, jewellery, textiles, and clothing.

The exhibition is an immersive journey into digital mythology, and how it can expand our boundaries within storytelling. It is built around the recurring symbols in the artist’s work: eyes, tears, hands, silver coins and the image of the wolf, a supernatural creature which is simultaneously animal and human. All of these motifs create a story which allows the viewer to muse on the power of nature and our place within it, while reviving and reimagining forgotten histories and connecting with ancestral female power. The wolf and the image of a Chuvash warrior woman endlessly appear in Polina’s work, often transforming into one another. In the same way, the past and present, digital and analogue constantly coexist, connected through the artist’s creativity.