Handmade Superpower

This series is based on the idea from the book Superhero Suit: for a child playing a superhero costume, it’s not just clothes, it’s a call to action. When you put it on, you can’t stay out of the way. The costume requires action, movement, movement, even if it’s imaginary. In my generated images, I create images of children in homemade superhero costumes. These costumes are collected from handmade materials, seem fragile and imperfect, but that is their strength. They do not exist as attributes of mass culture, but as a result of personal effort, imagination and quiet belief in the possibility of becoming someone greater. The series is directly related to my own childhood memories. I tied my grandmother’s handkerchief instead of a coat, made armor out of paper, made up my mind and desperately wanted to be someone else, different, out of the ordinary. It was a desire to overcome an accessible human being — even if only for a short time — in the game, but seriously. These images are not about superheroes, but about children who really try to become superheroes. They have naivety and vulnerability, some touching disproportionateness between dream and reality, but also persistence and hope. It’s a memory of a time when belief in a miracle was stronger than limitation, and the desire to be a hero became a way to survive the world and have a place in it.