Ina Hristova - A Child’s Christmas in Wales

Dylan Thomas’s poetic text, originally written for reading on the radio, evokes tactile images from childhood that are as personal as they are universal. Ina Hristova transports us into the atmosphere of this “wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays” with pictures of frozen moments that stretch out in time, the same way they do when we remember enchanting experiences from childhood. Hypnotic, reduced to a moment of rapture and intoxication – a moment of rolling in the snow, a moment of snowflakes falling, a moment of looking at the fish beneath the ice rink of the frozen lake. A moment when a child’s warm nose touches the frosted window... This effect makes the text sound like an audio track against the background of the snowy paintings. The artist dresses the children in bright monochrome coats and scarves and makes them the centre of the action amidst the silver decorations, leaves open spaces in which footsteps in the snowdrifts lead our eyes to warm homes, and throughout the entire book, a magical snow falls onto the grey-blue rural landscape.