STANISLAVA PINCHUK
Born to a family of lace-makers, Ukrainian-australian artist and tattooist Stanislava Pinchuk (aka Miso) is creating drawings that look like preparatory pin sketches for lace to look at conflict from a woman’s perspective.
I MAKE DATA MAPS OF HOW GROUND AND TOPOGRAPHIES HAVE CHANGED IN CONFLICT AND WAR ZONES. A big catalyst in my work was when Ukraine was invaded a few years ago. Up to that point, I had been mapping myself and my friends, moving around the world and being quite transient. But that made me start mapping out conflict. I guess when your home is invaded you can’t help but make work about it, and I think it kind of set this huge question that has occupied me ever since.
I GREW UP AROUND PUNKS and my best friend is a really great tattooist. Being around it was just so interesting and it’s full of adrenaline and intensity. I love anything really decorative. I’m inspired by textiles and jewellery and the history of women’s work. Tattooing feeds so beautifully into that. Across history, in most cultures that tattoo ritually, it’s women tattooing other women. It’s such a beautiful way to make drawings for my friends, that are so different to making things for museums or galleries or collectors. It’s a completely different energy to drawing that I find super electric.
I’M INTERESTED IN THE HISTORY OF HOW WOMEN HAVE USED TEXTILES IN DOMESTIC WORK that is often dismissed as craft instead of being recognised as powerful visual languages and histories. I reference Chilean arpilleras or Afghan war rugs and things where women have mapped their own experiences of war – these laborious, technical, decorative histories and aesthetics that we’ve built up over time. They’re powerful traditions.
I’M LUCKY TO HAVE A FEW AMAZING WOMEN THAT I LOOK TO AS ROLE MODELS. Martha Gellhorn is a huge influence as quite a pioneering war journalist. She was married to Ernest Hemingway and she had a varied perspective and a very different approach to war zones.
FEMINISM IS ABOUT SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EQUALITY, not just having half the rights but having half the power. It’s completely informed my practice and convictions.