Memory Packaging

Packaging is something we meet and see all the time, every day. This is the simplest and most utilitarian item that we often don’t even pay attention to. Here’s a paper cup of coffee in my hand, and there’s a parcel box. We use it, throw it away, take a new one, and so on. But sometimes something changes and the subject of the package becomes noticeable and significant for us. One small detail is enough.

Three gift bags evoke thoughts of childhood. Every New Year my brother and me found gift bags under the tree. They looked completely different, but they always had paper snowflakes with our names. Our mother cut them out. Three packages: my name «Katya» or «Katyusha» on one of them, my brother’s name «Danya» on the second, and the signature «mom + dad» or «parents» on the third. Mom, of course, did not want to destroy the magic of the holiday, because, according to the legend, Santa Claus puts gifts under the tree, and therefore packed a gift for herself and dad too. And now any gift bag in my eyes becomes a childhood memory — just need to see it with a paper snowflake.

The same thing happens with Starbucks cups. When ordering at this coffee shop, the barista always asks for the guest’s name, which has always been a feature of the brand. During our honeymoon in Europe my husband and me went to this coffee shop. Foreigners do not perceive Russian names well by hearing, and therefore they wrote ours with mistakes, and that made us smile.

It became a tradition for us on subsequent trips. Whatever country we were in, we went to Starbucks. When I see two such cups together, one with a chewed straw by my husband, I immediately think of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris…

A pile of metal lids tells about my grandmother. Every year she took care of her garden, growing fruits, berries and vegetables, and then canned them, turning them into jams, compotes and pickles. She used glass jars with metal lids on carvings, often not new. There were always a lot of stocks of various preserves, and in order not to get confused, grandma always signed the cans, sticking pieces of plaster on the lids for this purpose. Therefore, whenever I came to visit her, she always knew which jar to get, remembering which year the harvest was better.

I was a naughty child, and one day, after I was punished for something, I spoiled a batch of freshly brewed gooseberry jam by putting a few spoons of soup in it. Grandma, of course, gathered the soup from the surface and saved the jam. Nevertheless, she was afraid, it might be spoiled, and therefore she signed it «Jam with soup». As far as I remember, it tasted great. It is now rare to see such markings anywhere.

The box tells about all the cats I have ever had. I think every cat lover knows that these animals love boxes. I remember I asked for boxes for my first kitten, a grey British cat named Geneva, in stores on the way home. Then there were palace, assembled from boxes with round holes cut out for entrances. And then there was the cat Trix, and he, among other things, loved to sleep on an old wool blanket. Now I have a third cat, Goosya, and she climbs into every box she fits in, and sometimes sleeps in her cardboard house.

Cardboard suffers from teeth and claws, crumples, but remains loved. Potentially, any box from a parcel or even shoes can become a new home, you just need to cut the entrance there.

My sculptures are memories. There is nothing inside the sculptures, because memories are ephemeral, intangible. They are just a vague feeling, a half-erased image of moments dear to me. They depict ordinary, everyday objects that turn into something more. I do not remember the actual appearance of the bags I received gifts in as a child or the design of the lids, because people’s memories blur over time. What mistakes were made in my name? What size was that box? It does not matter. After all, anything can become a memory.

The sculptures are made in the technique of hand-sculpting and slip casting into plaster molds. The inscriptions and drawings are applied in the technique of hand-painting and stenciling with underglaze paints. Replication with exact repetition is not possible. It is possible to exhibit both together and separately. Ekaterina Skripkina, 2024.