Where is ‘home’?
It’s a question my family and I often thought about. Our identities are rooted to multiple places, past and present. For more than three generations now, there has not been a singular answer. Where is home if the places you loved no longer exist? Buildings and country borders, immersed or absorbed, forever changed.
With this background, I’ve come to accept that I’m always ready to move on, to make a home in a new place, and in this process I learnt that home is a collection of experiences which we can connect to.
No matter where I am, I find my own way home through objects. Home is wherever I carry objects that articulate experiences, emotions and resonance.
Objects make our spaces. Objects can be sentimental, practical, inspiring. They can be woven with memories, intentions and emotions. They are part of the fabric of our identities. Some have meaning because we chose them, others have been passed onto us with stories. There is beauty in each.
I curate objects and spaces. As our lives are so heavily influenced by the digital milieu, I feel there is a growing need for simplicity, meaning and tangible experiences. The objects and the beauty of everyday things around us can provide a reflective existence, curating spaces to remind us of home.
My background is in the arts and culture, having lived across Europe to experience new materials and visual mediums, I've started my creative path by studying sculpture, staying for a time in Pietrasanta, Italy, working with the Carrara marble from the same quarry Michelangelo once worked from. As a photo editor working from London, Paris and St Petersburg, I featured makers and artists in printed publications.
Growing from these experiences, my work developed an emphasis on craft and heritage preservation, through silversmithing in Hatton Gardens, London, and setting up a social enterprise to preserve traditional artisan wool weaving techniques in the Carpathian Mountains.
After 10 years in the UK film industry I have been working as an independent digital inclusion specialist mostly as a UN consultant. The women's economic empowerment programmes run by the International Trade Centre and UN Women connected me with incredible women artisans and entrepreneurs in the Middle East, Africa and Asia and the Pacific.
This global work continues to inspire my aesthetic sensibility and I’m excited to be learning about craft and cultural heritage from women honing their skills in regions rich in stories and beautiful, traditional materials.
In my latest role as an international civil servant, I've found myself distanced from the world of craft, heritage and creativity that I love. This disconnect inspired me to start a newsletter - a space where I can still immerse in and share the beauty I find, which I deeply miss in my current work. It's a way to stay connected.
