nature culture
In her performance piece set in the forests near Oslo, Norway, Yelena crafts a ritual that draws on feminist theory’s emphasis on reclaiming and reimagining the personal and the natural. By engaging with everyday objects—like a small shovel repurposed as a ritualistic tool—and integrating elements of nature, Yelena disrupts traditional uses of these items and subverts expectations around women’s roles in both domestic and natural spaces. She starts by clearing a makeshift space around the remnants of a campfire, symbolically transforming this previously used area into a site for self-discovery and intuitive expression. As she caresses a burnt log with tenderness, she performs an intimate gesture that questions rigid boundaries between self and nature, person and object, evoking the feminist theory of interconnectivity and the reclaiming of natural spaces as zones of feminine empowerment. Her improvised interactions create an atmosphere of ritual, aligning with feminist perspectives that advocate for the reclamation of intuitive and emotional knowledge in resistance to patriarchal rationalism. Finally, by emerging naked from beneath a rag draped over a tree, Yelena presents herself as both witness and guide, symbolically “unveiling” the surrounding landscape as if it were a hidden or sacred aspect of herself. This act of unveiling serves as a metaphor for revealing the feminine, the intuitive, and the natural to a world that often overlooks these connections. In this way, Yelena’s performance reclaims the natural world as a space of personal and collective empowerment, challenging viewers to consider their relationship with both nature and their own intuitive knowledge through a feminist lens.
