Herbs and Winds
Window painting, stencil installation, community engagement project,
Prokopyevka Village School, Komi Republic, July 2024
Part of the project Tom Sawyer Fest. Ipatovo, in collaboration with the Komi collective Öввö.
Herbs and Winds is a site-specific artwork created on the windows of the village school in Prokopyevka, Komi Republic, as part of the cultural heritage initiative Tom Sawyer Fest. Ipatovo. This broader project aims to restore and reimagine public and historical spaces in small towns and villages through collective, volunteer-driven artistic and architectural interventions. Herbs and Winds contribution was realized in collaboration with the local cultural and activist collective Öввö, based in the Komi Republic, whose work focuses on supporting indigenous identity, community care, and sustainable practices.
The work was developed during the field research in July 2024 and forms part of the ongoing artistic research, which investigates cultivation practices of women in post-socialist rural spaces.
Herbs und Winds explores the interaction between wild herbs and the ancestral signs of the Komi people — known as pas. These symbolic signs, traditionally used for protection, orientation, and storytelling, are integrated into the visual language of the piece. By weaving pas into the stenciled plant motifs, a multi-layered composition emerges — one that imagines new, fictional species of wild herbs shaped by memory, environment, and culture.
The depicted herbs, including Ivan Chai (willowherb), St. John's Wort, and Rosehip, are commonly used in Komi traditional medicine and cooking. They embody knowledge and practices passed down through generations in rural communities. The imagery reflects on how non-human bodies and the memories of place interact to form new meanings and narratives.
Herbs and Winds was created in close dialogue with local residents, particularly women who continue to forage and use wild plants in everyday life. Their voices and lived knowledge informed the work’s development. Alongside the window paintings, Grigorian created a series of instructional posters on local herb identification and foraging practices, intended for use within the school.
By connecting ancestral signs with ecological knowledge, Herbs and Winds offers a poetic, intergenerational space where memory, nature, and education intersect — a gesture toward rooted forms of feminist resilience and community care.
