For this project, I wanted to take the responses gathered from the previous work and develop them into something that could present these stories in an aesthetic and meaningful way. I spent time considering the visual language of the project and how it could communicate a sense of nostalgia and cultural memory.
I was deeply inspired by the work of Simona Bortis-Schultz, particularly her book To Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth: Women’s Work. In this publication, she uses symbolism and material references to evoke the appearance and emotional significance of the traditional Romanian blouse, which is the central subject of her work. Inspired by this approach, I wanted to create something that carried a similarly representative visual identity.
What I ultimately drew from was the imagery of traditional doilies commonly found throughout many post-communist countries and especially within Romanian homes. These decorative textiles were often placed on top of televisions and household furniture, becoming both a familiar domestic object and, over time, a kind of visual meme within Romanian culture. I wanted to reference this shared cultural memory by incorporating visual and textural elements inspired by the doily itself. I also approached the physical construction of the publication playfully, cutting the edges in a way that echoed the appearance of a table runner or decorative lace doily.
The publication was produced in two versions that were visually almost identical and shared the same overall visual language, differing only in the language used for the written text. The original version was created in Romanian, as this was the primary audience and cultural context of the project. However, I also developed an English version in order to make the work more accessible to people who interact with the project but are not Romanian or do not speak the language.
I used a combination of photos taken by me and the participant Anna who actually provided photos of her dog and of herself as a child and a piece of fibre art that I created for the actual project. So all of the photos used are actually taken by me or my participant Anna. The piece that is seen on the black spread is actually a piece that I created and you can find more information on in this blog post.
Below you can find spreads from both publications.
ROMANIAN
ENGLISH