Dear Grandfather Frost, 2025
My project explores my desire to return to childhood, to a time when I believed in the magical figure of Grandfather Frost, who could make my wishes come true. Knowing now that he never truly existed, and that my own grandfather wore the costume, I long to escape back into that imagined world. In this project, my grandfather becomes a metaphorical guide into a fairy tale.
Rereading the letters I wrote to Grandfather Frost as a child, I reflect on how happy that time was and question how, as an adult, I might recreate even a fragment of it. Through collages and archival materials, I explore the space between belief in magic and harsh reality. The work forms a dreamlike space shaped by nostalgia and longing for protection disrupted by family circumstances and emigration.