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Sand Animation with Kseniya Simonova

As I mentioned yesterday, transient art fascinates me. I sometimes become frustrated while writing and entertain the thought of pressing the delete key on my files. But I know I have back-ups, so it would be unlikely my work would be irretrievable. I’ve done it with knitting, though, when I’ve spent months knitting a particular pattern, put it aside over summer, and then the following autumn I’ve changed my mind–I’ve frogged the entire thing, reclaimed the yarn, and started something new.

Imagine creating a work of art with the express purpose of letting it go when you’re finished. Imagine working in a medium that is transient, that you cannot preserve. Imagine completing a perfect cycle–perfect balance between creating and destroying.

Kseniya Simonova is an amazingly talented performance artist who uses sand as her medium. She took a risk when she performed an emotionally-charged animation about a couple separated by the second world war as her entry in Ukraine’s Got Talent. Kseniya went on to win the competition.

Have a tissue box handy when you watch:

You can see more of Kseniya’s performances on her official YouTube channel.

Ilana Yahav is another well-known sand artist, from Israel. You can watch clips of Ilana’s performances on her website.

How about you? Have you played with sand? Tried to create art with it? I find it a very difficult medium.

4 thoughts on “Sand Animation with Kseniya Simonova”

  1. My kids are just learning how to build sandcastles now – it’s fun to have an excuse to play in the sand again 😉

    I’ve seen some amazing sand sculpture exhibitions, too. Some people are so talented.

  2. I remember watching that video a while back, it’s beautiful. Your blog has made me wonder about transient art now… maybe I need to try to stretch in that direction, see if I can do it. I have my doubts lol I tend to be a little obsessive about leaving things behind to mark my passing when I’m gone, but maybe this is exactly what I need to grow away from that…

    1. It’s an intriguing idea, isn’t it? There’s always the option of taking photographs of your transient artwork, which I sort of think defeats the object. We human beings are very attached to our little creations 🙂

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