What does leaving your home country and moving to the UK feel like? We bring our experiences and traditions with us to maintain a connection to our home, and for those who are artists, this profoundly influences their creativity. That’s what we see in the work of artist Sofiia Segalla, who was born in Russia but now lives in the UK.
Segalla’s illustrative practice explores the intersection of migration and identity, drawing inspiration from her experiences and those of 20th-century Russian émigrés. Her visual narratives create powerful dialogues between past and present, examining how cultural memory shapes our understanding of belonging.
These motifs are evident in her illustrations, The House and The Tower, where the women’s flowing garments appear to envelop a hulking concrete block, and Exodus, where a building is projected onto the woman’s back. Clothing can carry memories, and Segalla’s work makes this idea tangible. Through these visual metaphors, Segalla explores how memories form our identity. Her illustrations evoke past eras, holding stories within their composition. This strikingly represents how our cultural heritage becomes inseparable from our sense of self.
In Pop, the woman holding a microphone moves to the music with great dynamism, the lyrics written across her conveying her words in a static artwork. These women carry memories of their home upon their bodies while simultaneously recognising that, through migration, they are also searching for belonging.
The illustrations form the core part of Sofiia’s practice. Her visual narratives often incorporate textile elements as part of conceptual installations, which she documents in a series of photographs.
Beyond these illustrations, she also creates digital storytelling pieces about how young people and children survive turbulent times marked by hunger, war, and pandemics. While her work acknowledges the trauma they endure, it also highlights the recurring narrative that every generation is told the world is ending – just as Sofiia was told growing up. Yet, these stories ultimately celebrate hope and resilience, emphasising our ability to keep moving forward.
Sofiia Segalla’s work is a testament to how migration shapes identity. By merging traditional aesthetics with contemporary materials, she honours her heritage and redefines what it means to carry home with you.
You can find more work by Sofiia Segalla on her Instagram.
