Cows, 2023 by Anna Novakov

Cows, 2023

Anna Novakov

Cows, 2023

Scented Hand needlework

Drawing on my Serbian heritage and a lineage of women embroiderers and seamstresses, I use these ancestral crafts as both material and metaphor, weaving together the personal and the collective. My art serves as a bridge between generations, honoring the quiet labor of my foremothers while reimagining these practices within contemporary contexts. Scent, often considered an invisible yet potent trigger of memory, amplifies my work's sensory impact, evoking feelings of nostalgia and connection to my cultural roots. In my installations, the viewer encounters a dialogue between the tangible and the intangible, a space where the fragility of fabric mirrors the fleeting nature of scent, and where the act of stitching becomes a meditative ritual of reflection and creation. Through this synthesis of craft and concept, I reclaim traditionally undervalued "women's work," elevating it to a form of storytelling that transcends time and geography, while making visible the invisible threads of heritage and identity.