Has it been a month since I last popped in here for a curatorial chat? Is our summer well underway? Perhaps there is a more appropriate question when looking at Homecoming pictured here? Afterall, this is one of Diana’s paintings which has emerged in the heat of this Covid-19 summer of ours. Let’s try. Do migrating elephants in search of food, shelter and water ever feel homesick?
It seems that in times of Covid-19 pandemic and multiple crises, Diana has embraced her inner elephant, migrating across the globe. The artist may be under lockdown at her home in Edinburgh, yet her mind wanders off. It migrates in the hope to savour the grapes ripening under the hot August sun of her native Bulgaria. Then, it reaches for the sky, perhaps to catch a star.
Diana dreams. She dreams of homecoming. In her dream she walks or rather stamps my elephant feet and the globe turns into a golden delicious. Her young son, as small as a bird perched on her back, comes in for the ride. She stamps her feet a bit more and the Monastery at the end of the road invites her to light a candle of hope. Then Diana dreams again.
Well, that has been a brief yet dreamy curatorial studio visit on a hot summer night. Now, off to wrap up Diana’s painting Homecoming safe and submit it for Home-Works – the open call for Spilt Milk Members’ Show 2020. Yours, Iliyana Nedkova
As part of Home-Works Residency