The series of illustrations entitled Collages brings together fragments of everyday craft traditions, representing the textile art of twentieth-century Belarus, with a collection of black-and-white archival photographs from the Second World War. Photography at the time was subject to wartime censorship, indeed, like all forms of information, not only those directly related to military operations but also those depicting daily life. As a result, Soviet wartime photography preserved only the “ceremonial” face of the past, leaving no space for the ideologically inconvenient aspects of the war and its aftermath.

In contrast, popular memory found expression in vibrant handwoven carpets and embroidered towels created by ordinary people, individuals who themselves were participants in the wartime experience. Enduring hunger and loss, they nevertheless responded to upheaval by surrounding themselves with beauty, as though seeking to shield memory from traumatic recollections.