The Women’s House: Anastasia Zhenunk’s representation of female creativity and independence

Using old family pictures as a guideline, the Russian illustrator and embroidery artist developed her designs with the aim of educating people in standing for something. She hopes her work will inspire others to tell their own stories through their chosen artistic medium.

She explains: “When you miss something or someone, you start to see its image everywhere: in the crowd, in these trees, in that window. My family and I live through these moments of sorrow almost every day.

“When I lost my father three years ago, I started to notice things that are now empty, things that miss him. This was his chair, and here he used to put his pack of cigarettes, and here just yesterday was his motorcycle helmet. Through the absence of him and his belongings, I feel his presence.

“This series of embroideries depict such scenes and objects, that my family and I notice in our house. It is a mixture of memories and things that are happening now.

“Embroidery represents our presence, emphasising on the facts that now only women live in this house, while the man is gone and today only a vague silhouette of the past reminds us how it used to be.”

Find out more about this deeply moving project here.