snow names

public art project

location: Arkhangelsk city (Russia)

- Georgy Sedov Embankment, 9

- Chelyuskintsev St., 4

- Kedrova St., 19, k.1

- Kedrova St., 6

- Gulyaev St., 121

What comes first when you think of the North? Snow, lots of snow, which hides the horizon. Snowflakes look like pitched pearls, like seed beads building up into the words of frozen songs. There are dozens of mysterious names referring to the winter natural phenomenons: nilas, ryanda, shuga, kaltak, uhka, gudega, rovga, kurzhevina... I don’t know these words. They sound to me like the names of characters from a northern fairy tale. Characters that left their names on the walls of the city disappearing under the snow.

Solombala is the oldest district of Arkhangelsk with unique wooden buildings that are fast disappearing. This is where I put these names, targeting the building that are about to be demolished. Forgotten words on forgotten houses.

- ukhka - snow on ice or fine crumbled ice

- shuga – loose ice that appears in the autumn before the freeze-up

- ryanda – snow with rain

- nilas – a thin ice crust on the surface of seawater

- kid – heavy snowfall

the project carried out under an in-residence program by “City says”

(Center for Contemporary Art A R K A, Arkhangelsk)

2021