Girls

The textile piece Girls is a deeply personal story about two chinchillas, Persyk and Snezhа, who became for me not just pets, but equal partners in coexistence.
This work seeks to look at the animal not as property or a decorative element of human life, but as an individuality — with its own emotions, decisions, moods, and boundaries.

I met them when I was about eleven. My sister and I loved playing with them, often building a “bridge” of our arms from the armchair to the table, which Persyk and Snezhа happily ran across. We had our rituals: Snezhа asked for nuts every evening, standing on her hind legs and gazing straight into my eyes, while Persyk always found inventive ways to reach forbidden treats.

This year brought both loss and trial. Snezhа’s death after an unsuccessful veterinary operation was a painful experience of helplessness and anger at human indifference. Later, I had to take Persyk on a risky trip to Kyiv to save her life. On the train, she trusted me for the first time so deeply — hiding in my hair, sleeping under my sweater, never leaving my side. It was then I understood: our bond was not about possession, but about mutual presence and support.

My chinchillas taught me that an animal is a subject, equal in its capacity to love, grieve, be offended, or rejoice. The story of the piece contrasts this closeness with what I witnessed at markets: cages with animals sold as commodities, with complete disregard for their fate.

At its core, Girls embodies my personal experience of intimacy, loss, and rescue, which transformed into a deeper understanding of the animal as the Other. The story of Snezhа and Persyk became my way of seeing that love between humans and animals must be built not on domination, but on respect and trust.

Through the tactile language of textiles, I preserve memories — of games, habits, character, and moments of care and trust. The techniques of patchwork and quilting, the use of recycled fabrics and embroidery, reference the memorial quilts of Zak Foster, but here they are filled with my own experience — where the animal is not a “lesser being,” but a true companion.