Boryan Rusenova Ina/TimeisaRiverbed

To Love, Without Knowing

I generate work out of life’s daily residue: my toddlers’ drawings, school phonics, and Viber chats across the ocean. This sequence of diorama forms is composed of fragments from a made-up picture alphabet. The letter-like symbols are based on my toddler’s paper clippings-shapes reminiscent of an ancient hieroglyphic language. Every diorama began with a layer of printed chiffon. In response, I composed pieces using painted drafting film and graphite drawings. The layering process embraces improvisation and chance. I traced fragments while they were suspended in the air, painted see-through shapes in black gesso, and cut material in accordance with the emerging image. The process felt like I was stitching a garment in real time for a body without specific dimensions. The letter-like symbols repeat like reverberations throughout the diorama form. I see this ricochet effect of bouncing shapes, incompletely registered but still there, as a metaphor for the life of languages in diasporic spaces.