Eva Nikolova

My work grows out of a sense of place - a place which, while it is very much part of me, I am no longer a part of. The deep affinity I feel for emblematically Balkan structures and sites is the corollary to the rapid homogenization of space in a world madly rushing towards cultural and economic singularity. But the intense gravitational pull of these images on my immigrant’s imagination is also rooted in a sense of personal dislocation – as much cultural as physical. In grappling with the meaning of “Home”, the house – the archetypal image of home – takes on narratives of memory, longing, desire, and ultimately opens up onto issues of identity. Architecture becomes the allegorical guise through which I explore the connections between iconic cultural objects and the construction of identity and memory - personal and collective, individual and national.