“She Who Reads”

An exhibit of Daria Alioshkina, a Lviv mistress with Vinnytsia roots, has opened at the Vinnytsia Oblast Center of Folk Art. The exposition, mysteriously titled “She Who Reads,” displays vytynanky (paper cut items) of various sizes. An interesting attachment to each of them is a Ukrainian saying that has a profound meaning and a very witty, albeit figurative, form, such as: “Woman reigns but not rules,” “Jump on, woman, backwards or forwards, but things follow their way,” “It takes a ceaseless effort to cheat a woman.”

The mistress confesses that she heard them more than once in her native Bukatynka (Chernivtsi raion, Vinnytsia oblast), where her parents, well-know sculptors and stonemasons, live now. Daria Alioshkina has also enthused about sculpture before (after all, she is a sculptor by profession), but now she spends almost all of her time paper-cutting. Last year alone she cut over 120 square meters of paper lace.

The exposition also includes new works and, partly, vytynanky as part of the project “Woven, Cut, and Adorned.” “They are all united by one theme – woman the protectress and ornamental symbols,” the mistress says. “Everyone who comes from the Vinnytsia region knows what a vytynanka is. So I was worried very much, when I was taking my works here, for only well-known artists work here. I’ve been practicing this art since 2008, when we held a big exhibit of paper lace in Lviv. The Ukrainian art critic Mykhailo Stankevych, still alive at the time, noted that the vytynanka was on the verge of extinction. This stung me so much that I decided to make an all-out effort not only to keep this art intact, but also to furnish it with new forms. For me, the vytynanka is as important as painting. And I am convinced that in the course of time it will adorn the interiors of Ukrainian dwellings and form the best collections of distinguished persons.”

Daria Alioshkina’s lacy oeuvres can be seen in Vinnytsia until February 6.