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«Silyanka»

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Series "On this side of the past". ​Canvas on cardboard, oil , 50x40cm, 2024 y.

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700 Euros

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Silyanka is an even strip of beads that is tied at the back of the neck. In Ukrainian language the name comes from the method of making such jewelry :“silyannya” — a method of stringing beads on a thread. Silyanka is usually narrow, two to three centimeters. Women wore them every day as a talisman. That is why they were made with various ornaments. Geometric patterns such as rhombuses, triangles, and zigzags were considered symbols of infinity and eternal life. 

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Perhaps the pattern of this silyanka — like an endless geometric line — extended the life of this girl, because even today I could not take my eyes off her.

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• Photo: A girl from the village of Zavadka, 1928.

• Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life. Woven silianka. Made in the 1940s.https://ua.museum-digital.org/object/16310