Alexei Kostroma. «White feather»

WHITE FEATHER – CHAOS-ORDER-SPIRIT

This is primarily used in large-scale installations and projects such as ‘Organic Way. The Penguin Spiral’, ‘Feathered Aggression’, ‘Feathered Chaos’, ‘Feathered Purse’, etc. 
For Kostroma the structure of the feather represents the unity of chaos (fluff at the base of the feather), order (the precise structure of the main part) and spirit (ethereal weightlessness). 
The white feather was the iconic material that first made a name for Kostroma in the 1990s. He became famous for the high-profile project ‘Feathering Names and Symbols’, and for installations where he covered various urban objects in white goose feathers: for example, a cannon on the bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg (‘Feathered Aggression’, 1994), the ‘Feathered Purse’ in Germany that gained admission to the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe, 1996 (role of money in art), etc.  In the mass media, feather installations and actions became a pacifist symbol for the smothering of aggression.