The most important thing for me is such a peculiar view of the world around you, when you notice beauty in the most ordinary things. Suddenly you see some kind of scheme, image, composition, color.

This process often takes place in your mind not when you expect it, and not exactly when it is convenient for you. But this is the most important thing - to think like an artist. And only later you start looking for the proper material and technique to convey your thoughts.

Julia Nesis

For the past decade or more, the work of Julia Nesis has featured in diverse art projects.

What motivates her artistically is the ecological crisis. To unearth the root causes, she examines closely the way the world is perceived – the different ways it is grasped culturally. Her concern with ecological issues is not some political – even ecological – pursuit. It propels her creative process: a hope to pinpoint aesthetic forms for eco-art moving forward. It is an invitation to us, the beholders, to get think about the dialogue, to get involved.

Julia loves to experiment widely with materials and techniques. She is fascinated by the interaction between organic and non-organic materials – by the complex textures that evolve. Hemp, jute, linen, gypsum, rusty metal, wire, used coffee capsules - her experiments bring to mind the endeavours of Medieval alchemists, working through so many improbable permutations in their attempts to create the Philosopher’s Stone.

Cellulose, linen threads and wild grass were used to produce hand-made paper. The result is a complex synthesis of the man-made and the 100 per cent natural: some Utopian co-existence between humans and nature.

A preoccupation with myths and rituals works infuses the rawness in Julia’s works; an interest in traditional crafts merges with an intentional, carefully planned anachronism. Traces of ancient history connect with contemporary art experiments and modernist sensibilities. Her monumental works can appear primordial and alien. Take “The Path of Heroes” installation, evocative of giant eggshells laid by some unidentified species around the forest. Her amazing “Labyrinth” installation suggests some forsaken site used for ancient rituals.

Julia’s art, for the observer, lies in how her objects interact with nature: initially part of a thought-out, artistic process, they are gradually affected by what the elements throw at them, decaying, mutating and distorting.

It would be wrong to call Julia Nesis simply a site-specific artist, making creations that are inseparable from their locations. Her works can be transferred from natural environments to exhibition halls, where they become artefacts, bringing their savage beauty from the depths of ages into the modern world.