Anastasía Kyrýlina is a Ukrainian artist. She was born in 1981 in Vinnytsia, studied at the Odésa National University named after Ilyá Méchnikov and currently lives in Odésa. Nastya’s creativity is a search for oneself, one’s guidelines and ideals. Recently, she has been successfully combining a purely artistic practice with the design of practical accessories: from women’s clothing to jewellery and handbags.The work “Family” was created in 2009 at the beginning of her professional activity. The long horizontal canvas of the painting is crossed by a yellow-blue rope. There are 3 clothespins on it: the yellow one, turned down, and the blue one, turned up, are located next to each other in the centre of the picture. A little away from them is another, white clothespin, seemingly of a smaller size, turned slightly upwards. The blue sky is depicted in the background. A fence can be seen in the lower part of the picture. On the right, there is a small part of the house, from which we can see only the edge of the roof.

The picture can be explained in two ways. The first one is a depiction of the everydayness of human life and its certain attributes. Drying clothes is an integral part of every family’s life. As usual, clothes are still being dried in every Odésa yard. The size and layout of most of our apartments do not allow for other options.

However, the author called her work “Family” for a reason. Perhaps at that time, the creation of a strong family was the main theme for her. In this way, she demonstrated the superiority of a family over loneliness. Not for nothing, one clothespin seems forgotten and smaller than the two together.

At first sight, there is nothing special in this work. But then we need an answer: what made almost all visitors stop against this painting in exhibition halls for many years? It can be assumed that these are the same subconscious reflexes that force a person to decipher simple associations.