Bag of socks

Video performance, 8 minutes 34 seconds

Reproducing a daily ritual becomes my way of speaking about everydayness and people. The repeated actions of putting on and taking off socks signify the passage of time, encounters, and separations along the path of life. The motif of loneliness as the initial and final state of human existence permeates the entire work. We come into this world alone, and we leave alone.

Worn socks from different periods of life, which I saved unintentionally, are the material that has passed into the homely category. Among them are specimens that are over ten years old.

In careful attention to the environmental component as part of everyday experience, my actions highlight the intractability of the sock recycling issue. The recycling centers do not recycle socks, just like underwear globally. The bag of socks becomes a symbol of deferred solutions.

The work was created in the interdisciplinary laboratory “Street Diary”, a joint project of the French Institute in Russia and the School of Arts and Creative Industries.