Obsessive Thoughts
As part of its annual grant program the Ruarts Foundation presents the solo exhibition ‘Obsessive Thoughts’, a research project by Katika, an artist known for her crocheted works. She has managed to weave together an artistic statement and deep personal experience, showing that art can become the tool for healing.
One of the key features of this project was Katika’s regular work with a psychotherapist. Few people are so willing to openly reveal the confidential nature of their treatment path. Through her art the artist explores manic attachments, obsessions, compulsive states and more, exposing them through textile images. Each work, considered as an individual patient, was analyzed by a psychiatrist and received its own diagnosis, being accompanied by an official medical report in the exhibition.
Exhibits for the show were created from unraveled fragments of earlier works – this method turns destruction into a process of transformation, allowing the artist to live through, rather than erase, past failures. The chosen format – a 1×1 meter square – symbolizes stability and a safe space, yet at the same time hints at an endless cycle of experience. Sound becomes an important part of the project: melodies specially created in collaboration with the composer embody the continuity of obsessive thoughts.
Using hand-dyed wool, the artist transforms reflections on topics such as stalking, fixation on fictional characters, body dysmorphophobia, love addiction and depersonalization into vivid, tangible images. “Every thought leaves a trace in the body – in the area of the soul, sadness or depression. Heartfelt attachment feels like a wound, not like a rose,” Katika writes in her diary after one of the sessions.
As a result the project becomes a practice for methodically untangling obsessive thoughts – “clusters of neurons,” as the artist herself calls them – that loop in the mind, repeating themselves over and over again. For Katika crocheting is not simply a technique, it becomes a metaphor for the interconnectedness of the body and psyche: individual threads, intertwined, create a strong fabric, but if even one breaks this may destroy the whole. The artist meticulously weaves warmth, respect for lived experience and, most importantly, the idea of healing into her works.
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Katika is a contemporary artist who was born in Hungary in 1989 and is now based in Moscow, Russia. She graduated from the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Art in 2015 and participated in the 8th season of Open Studios at Winzavod in 2022. Katika primarily uses crochet and hand-dyed yarn as her main mediums. Her work explores themes of the sacred, the popular, and the sensual. Through her choice of subjects, materials, and techniques, she actively engages the viewer in an interactive dialogue. Katika’s creations imbue familiar, everyday, and “cozy” qualities, effectively reducing the distance between the audience and the artwork. The artist has showcased her solo exhibitions in various cities, including Moscow, Suzdal, Yekaterinburg, Tokyo, Miami, and several others.
