10 Questions with Evgeniia Kazarezova

Featured INNER COVER artist - ISSUE09

Evgeniia Kazarezova is a ceramic designer. She started her professional career as an architect and later as an interior designer. Nowadays, she continues to work with space by placing her objects in it. She primarily works with clay as with one of the ancient and natural materials humans worked with. The perception of how the material got through the thousands of years in different cultures all around the globe gives her a dose of verve. Using traditional craftsmanship methods, she goes for contemporary design objects that reflect her vision and feeling of the modern world's actualities.

www.zheni.studio | @zheni.studio

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a child of post-Soviet Russia, Evgeniia Kazarezova appreciates soviet postmodernist and brutalist architecture. She observes modern human relationships and flora on the city site, making connections between different phenomenons. Through the natural material and oldest craft, she explores the reality of digitalization and looks at it from different angles. She translates her vision through her objects. The combination of traditional techniques and modern technologies allows Evgeniia to achieve unobvious results during the design process.

The artist associates herself with an aesthetic of pure material textured impressive forms, making her objects massive, tactile, and sensory. Her works are characterized by the purity of form, naturalness, and minimalism in colors. The design method can be described as a practice-led exploration of harmony between shape, texture, and natural color of the material to create sculptural and functional objects hand-made and fired in her studio in Bratislava.

INTERVIEW

Let's start talking about your background. You come from architecture, and you have worked as an interior designer before turning to ceramics. How much did your architecture background influence your current work? 

I have a deep and diverse background, and I always felt confident in the field of any kind of creativity. Freshness, flexibility in terms of ceramic craft, and at the same time, the architectural background helps me to look at work with clay from different sides, to rethink the function, the material, and to achieve unobvious results during the design process. Also, my experience in the field of design and architecture taught me that there is always hard work with many people involved behind a beautiful picture. This makes me not a studio-oriented kind of ceramist but one who is open for collaboration, attentive to the context, and ready for any challenge. This is what helped me to put the Zheni.studio brand on its feet in a short period of time.

When did you decide you wanted to pursue a career as a ceramic designer? And what obstacles and challenges did you face at the beginning? 

I could say it was a lucky chance. I never planned to be a ceramic designer or work directly with a material such as clay. It was pure coincidence. In Russia, I worked intensively in the interior design field. As I became a mother here in Slovakia, I was down with the so-called afterbirth depression. In search of a way out, I tried to discover a hobby and took a ceramic course. It was love at first sight. I mean real love, as if to a person. Ceramics were the only thing I could think of. I was waking up thinking of clay, and thinking about clay, I was going to sleep. So what got me there? The love. The courage to do what I love. And support from my friends and family. I am not calling myself a ceramist. But I can call myself an artist and visionary.

As for the obstacle, I may say something banal, but it turned out to be really difficult to start earning on the fruits of my creativity. The world is very rich in outstanding artists, and no matter how good you are, you must at least present your work to the public in order to be noticed. I can say that I am still in the process of solving this challenge. This turned out to be the unromantic side of the artist's job. You need to be able not only to be creative but also to have a business acumen if you really choose the creative path as the main one.

Your artworks mix traditional techniques with pure, almost minimal shapes and colors. How did you come up with this idea? 

This idea has come from many factors. One of them is an influence of my childhood in a post soviet industrial city in Siberia. Long white and cold winters, brutal minimalistic city landscapes are very dear to me.
I also find that working on simple forms and basic functions opens up great opportunities for self-expression. With clear boundaries, the process of "birth" of an object is quite intuitive. I give freedom of action to my hands, just following and anticipating the final result. Sometimes in the process, I don't even know what the outcome will be. And this is always very intriguing.

But the keynote in my creativity is always beauty—the beauty of nature, the beauty of a person. Using primitive material and forms, I am focusing on people's affiliation to nature and the beauty of just being a human. I use natural textures and colours, the basic features of the material as a metaphor of a natural, raw, unpolished beauty of a human being of any kind, any gender, and any ability. The beauty that you can admire without consideration, just because it exists, like a flower, like an ocean, like the starry sky. 

Clay seems to have a central place in your production, not just for the medium itself but for the meaning it brings along. It is, in your words, one of the most ancient and natural materials that humans have used throughout history anywhere on the globe. Do you want to put your artworks as direct descendants of these traditions, or would you like to break free from them?

Although I studied ceramics with an artisan of the Slovak ceramic tradition, through my work, I transmit my view of the present, nowadays life. I love to feel this connection between ancient craft and modern design. Basically, I can embody any of my ideas through simple methods such as ductile earth and fire—the transmission of a piece of nature to a modern person's life through design. I adore clay. I treat it as a partner, with respect and care. I follow its mood and help it to get ready to work. Sometimes I try to let go of the mind and allow my hands to follow the direction that the clay sets, to be inflow. Also, in some moments of the creative process when firing, I let objects take their own form. So there is no sole control from my side; we create together, I and clay.

Where do you find inspiration for your artworks? Do you have any artists you look up to, or is your inspiration more organic and natural? 

It is always weird to see a fox in the city. We mostly think it belongs to the forest, don't we? I prefer to see common space. And as any animal belongs to nature, humans are alike. It's just that our nests and caves are slightly bigger. But this invisible connection to nature is an eternal source of inspiration to me. And ideas just come. Sometimes as a thought, sometimes as a dream, sometimes it goes out of my hands. When the direction is set, I can plan the way to realize the project, but it is quite rare. 

In your opinion, what differentiates your production from others? And what do you see as the strengths of your project?

The emotions. As I already mentioned, I often work intuitively, and my state of mind deeply affects the final result. I often feel like I do share my thoughts through the objects I create. I always make my works tactile, heavy, and impressive in their physical properties to give the observer not only a visual experience but also a point of connection on a sensory level. 

I don't know if it is common or not among artists, but honestly speaking, it is a bit of a difficult question to me. What do you think looking at my works? I live, I experience, I create. Setting focus on natural and beautiful elements, I stay aside from the popular art of crisis, the art of pain and suffering. I may not raise world safety questions, but I think of my art as sharing positive energy. It might not be on the strongest side in terms of news occasions, but I find my approach meaningful and useful.

What are you working on right now? Do you have any new projects or series you are developing at the moment?

Currently, I am working further on the wearable vase concept. Recently I have made three new wearable versions and already presented them during the Milan Design Week. Furthermore, I developed the topic of interaction between modern humans and nature, exploring different placement and sizes of the Nymph. I still have some more styles in mind waiting for their realization, and I will dare to name this beautiful project when it's completed. Parallel to this, I continue my research in the field of wild clay. It is a very special experience when you start your work on a future art object going to the forest with a shovel on a shoulder. 

Covid-19 has deeply impacted the art world. With fewer exhibitions and art fairs, artists and galleries had to find other ways to showcase their work. Did you find different ways to show your work over the past year? 

I was so lucky to start my career in January 2020. So there was no chance for me to experience the "back in reckless covid-free days" state of things. Still, these years were very intense - Paris design week took place last year, then Paris fashion week -I first showed the Nymph to the public there. Bratislava made a design week as well. And this year, we were even treated with Milan design week. It was a pure joy to be involved in these events. Despite the pandemic people continue to create, the world of design is blooming and living. I feel its intensity. 

Very helpful during the lockdown was social media. I had a chance to show my studio work and to connect with people in the artistic field. I also made it to some online exhibitions and interviews. It's a bit surrealistic, but boundaries free though.

What do you hope to accomplish this year, both in terms of career goals and personal life?

Among my current projects, I have to mount my first exhibiting installation at Prague design week, where I participate together with a Slovak clothing brand, Biela. And I am already excited about this collaboration. Then the Bratislava design week will follow. But what Covid really taught me is that sometimes it is better to plan less. So I will observe the increasing movement and will carefully try prospective opportunities. This way, I'll try to be ready to catch a nice wave when the time comes.

Finally, any shows or publications where our readers can find your work?

As for offline possibilities - I am always happy to see guests in my studio in Bratislava, a visit can be arranged via email (hello@zheni.studio). On October 6th through 10th, I am taking part in the mentioned Design block in Prague. From the 2nd to the 6th of December, my works will be at the Bratislava design week. I also plan to participate in the Milan design week on April 4th-12th 2022. 
Online my works can be found on my website (www.zheni.studio), and the list of upcoming offline and online events is also there. I share updates on my Instagram page (@zheni.studio) as well, but in a rather informal way.
All articles, printed and online, are gathered on my website on the "about" page. The most recent ones are "1000 vases book", Esprit Magazine September 2021 issue, and this Al-Tiba9 article.