SOFT SPOTS

Polina Osipova, based in St. Petersburg, Russia, is an embroideress, and pearl sculptor whose practice draws inspiration from everything related to Chuvash culture. The Chuvash Republic is located in the European center of Russia and is home to the Chuvash people, a turkic ethnic group. Osipova says that she has made it her job to bring awareness to Chuvashia and more specifically, Chuvash women through her embroidery practice and platform as an artist upholding centuries old traditions in her own way. She discusses embroidery being a traditional Chuvash craft, and women in her own family upheld traditions of embroidery, and lacemaking, as explains that “in Soviet times it was impossible to buy fabric in the Chuvash village - so women wove the fabric from thread themselves. It was very common.” (Osipova) Through her Instagram highlights titled Chuvashia, she shares beautiful homemade fabrics made by her grandmothers, and she says that not a day goes by that she does not embroider.