Synesthesia (2021 – 2024)

Synesthesia (2021 – 2024)
Kochubey Mansion & Art Library, Saint Petersburg

I see sounds. I hear colors. It's not a metaphor — it's how my brain works.
This project started with that strange, beautiful gift. I wanted to share it. Not describe it. Share it.
So I painted twelve works. Each one is a translation of a specific scent — childhood garden, city rain, forest after thunder — into color, rhythm, texture. Then I asked a perfumer to translate them back. Together we created twelve image–scent pairs. You look at the painting. You smell the bottle next to it. And for a moment, you step into my senses.

It's not illustration. It's a portal.
We showed it in an old mansion. People walked through the space, from one pair to the next — like stepping into different rooms of someone's memory. Some stayed long. Some were deeply moved. That's when I understood: synesthesia is not a condition. It's a bridge.
I'm still working on this series. Now I'm embedding scent directly into some of the paintings — so the smell becomes part of the texture itself.

This exploration of sensory translation later gave birth to my "Spring's Eve Dream" series — where ancient myths meet questions of immortality and technological future.
No theory. Just an invitation to feel.