‘My textile design practice is motivated and informed by my mixed Eastern European cultural background, grounded in the interwoven histories of rural material culture and post-colonialism in a Central and Eastern European context. Focusing on rural textiles, floral motifs in these regions have often served as ‘national symbolic guards’. While motifs and colours are apolitical, their context and placement can signify a political meaning. This has been in service of constructing what is considered ‘pure’ culture – the result of political motivations, the antithesis of what culture and tradition are in real life. These concepts, which are personally meaningful, are at the core of my textile design practice.

With the use of the jacquard loom, I am able to construct an imaginary space consisting of personal ornaments and motifs and bold and gradient uses of colour. In my practice, I explore the relationship between organic and geometric forms. Merging invented motifs with explorations of colour and colour gradation serves as a visual metaphor for the flux of movement and migration and an outlet for my personal narrative as a migrant. I have gathered visual information through wandering, catching and recording glimpses of nature in urban centres, then incorporating them within a new reality utilising digital and analogue ways of working.’