BURAK

In her BURAK collection, Lena Solovyeva presents functional sculptures made of metal – copper and stainless steel. Interrelationships are important in the artist's work – between the artist and the craftsman, between the material and the master. All objects are first cut out, then shaped and subjected to complex multi-stage processing. Under the influence of air, high temperatures, and chemical reactions, each sculpture develops its own unique surface texture.
As a result of working with form, an illusory sense of suppleness and lightness of the object arises. In the plasticity of the sculptures, the contours of ancient Russian objects that have gone out of use—buraks, tueks, and lukoshkas—can be vaguely discerned. The half-forgotten names and lost functions of these objects appear in Lena Solovyeva's sculptures as a ghostly connection to the culture of the past.