Nesting II

Miriam Fabijan, a Canadian of Slovenian heritage, explores connection and lineage in Nesting, a series of photographs of matryoshka dolls, the nesting dolls famous among Slavic crafts.

Nesting dolls are a traditional representation of familial lineage: typically painted as a maternal figure, they embody an archetypal mother who gives birth to generations of children through an unfolding continuity. Fabijan further extends her thinking on the objects to the phenomenon of the “nesting instinct” that women experience while pregnant and postpartum. “This is a very creative time for women,” she writes, “as they go through physical, emotional, hormonal, and social transitions in becoming a mother.”

By portraying the nesting dolls in their unpainted state, Fabijan focuses on the form of the objects. Each piece is discrete yet related. Katherine Oktober

(Milk Art Journal Volume 2 "Body and Belonging", publication excerpt)