Russian artist Helga Stentzel spent lots of time in a Siberian village with her grandmother when she was little. ‘Entertainment was scarce: two TV channels, no computer, so I’d lie in bed squinting at the carpet until the flowers blurred and I saw a dragon. I’d search for parrots and hedgehogs in the wood knots on my bed.’
Now London-based, the artist creates and photographs the creatures she spies around her so you can see them too. ‘For my polar bear I wanted snowflakes on the clothes line, so I shot outside in February at -32C [during a visit to Russia]. I had to keep rushing indoors to defrost the camera and my hands.’ She hopes her work makes viewers smile. ‘We need to slow down and look at what’s around us.’
