Did my first interview with Anastassia Zamaraeva and her work ethic is really inspiring. Having a relatively unsatisfying past career as an architect, she found freedom in the material-led spontaneous clay sculpting practice. She'll always let her hand to freeform a piece of stoneware clay, let her daily experience or imagination unconsciously inform and slowly build the narrative of the sculpture. Post interpretation/analysis is also her way of self learning/therapy, she talked about unconsciously creating a series of sculptures like the offering with the notion of giving more than you have, it made her realize that she needs to take care of herself more than putting all in for other people.
Made the Sauna gang inspired by/responding to her aesthetic and creative process shortly after our video chat. I started off with the old lady (bottom row middle) wanting to make her as a chopstick stand, didn't really want her to be naked so make towels wrapping around her and her head, but then I had an excess slab and the sauna narrative came out of it, so i carved the wave and made more sauna people from then. They are really tiny so were draining to make, spent around two evenings to finish but i really enjoy the outcome.
As far as interpretation I'm not quite sure, i've created a quiet moment of freedom in relaxation and I guess this is what I need the most at the moment? The only time I've been to a hot spring was summer 2018 with my family and some of their friends. It was a female only private hot spring but the idea of getting naked even in front of close ones were still terrifying to me, we did it anyways and had a good time. It was a freeing moment before I came to London/the political movement in HK/family drama etc which was probably the only period in my life where everything was truly going well and I could just be a kid hanging around with people. I still get joy and appreciation out if a lot of things these days but I'll have to admit that the joy I experienced as a child back then and now as a young adult managing my life alone in a foreign country is different.
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