“Regeneration” – Contemporary Art from Hemp
With her exhibition “Regeneration”, Silvana Ilieva immerses us in a striking exploration of the artistic potential of industrial hemp – a material layered with sensitive historical context, ecological sustainability, and diverse aesthetics. A project that combines the visual experience with the “archaeology” of hemp, marked through time by alternating periods of widespread practical use and neglect.
In Bulgaria, hemp was cultivated extensively until the mid-20th century. In the following decades, due to various processes and circumstances, in many places around the world its role in the economic cycle was replaced by other materials and industrial interests, such as cotton production and synthetic textile substitutes. Adding nuance to this historical overview is also the stigmatization of the plant, associated with its psychoactive varieties. Today, hemp is gradually regaining its status as a raw material with exceptional ecological and market potential, serving as a substitute for mass-produced materials with an unacceptably high environmental footprint.
It is precisely in this broader context that Silvana Ilieva’s works come to life. Sculptural objects made from treated hemp fibers appear to have emerged into the present as if from another semi-fantastical botanical epoch. In her works, on the border between sculpture, architecture, and textile, the artist does not attempt to imitate nature; rather, she creates the sensation of a new branch of nature, carried into another degree of consciousness. In its social orientation, the project reflects on the ecological sustainability of the material while simultaneously embodying it in a tangible way.
Thus, hemp fibers – this ancient material once used for ropes, sails, construction, and insulation mixtures – here are elevated into refined aesthetic abstraction, without losing their earthy essence. On the contrary, precisely to emphasize its connection with today’s reality, the exhibition also presents unprocessed industrial hemp objects, provided as a partnership gesture by the company MARAY. This is a promising four-sided collaboration between a gallery, an artist, a curatorial team, and an innovative, ecologically minded business, aiming to reveal the vast potential for interaction between contemporary art and progressive developments in industry.
— Teodora Konstantinova and Radoslav Mehandzhiyski, Art and Culture Today
*Regeneration is made possible in partnership with MARAY Nikolova Ltd.
Art and Culture Today
Little Bird Place Gallery
MARAY | natural and renewable materials