Red - Colour of origin - Love and Sorrow - War
Red is visceral… the colour of love, the colour of blood, of motherhood, the colour of Ukrainian national embroidery and female textile art, the colour of bright emotions and joyful fortune, summer berries and flowers.
Red is also the colour of war, the colour of aggression, of danger, the colour of toxic relations and open wounds, the colour of conflict.
In this duality I grew up - I was born in the year of a nuclear catastrophe and left my country because of war. That’s why I see all the contradictions and complexity of my personal story and the story of my country in red.
That’s why I always pick the colour red for my works about Ukraine.
Performance “27”, Warsaw, 2024
This performance took place after the russian military air forces bombed the Central Medical Hospital for kids in Kiev, Ukraine on the 8th of July, 2024. This catastrophe was a tragic event, and for a couple of days I was not able to talk about that. The news brought the number 27, as the amount of deaths of the attack. Children with complicated diseases from all Ukraine were given the chance of life in this clinic. Without equipment and conditions, for a lot of them this chance will be missed.
The essence of the performance was painting as a process, instead of brushes I used 27 spikelets, pooring them in red colour, symbolising fresh Ukrainian blood, I applied them to fabric one by one.
When should I stop? How many bloody victims should be on a table to demand cease fire? Are there any political, economical or ideological reasons which will justify the death of YOUR child?
Saint Agatha, Italy, Winter 2024
Series of oil on canvas paintings and sculptures created in January, 2024 in Italy during my residency at Domus. These works are inspired by the painting “Martiro di Sant’Agata” by Nicolo Ferrando from the basilica of Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, Galatina, Italy.
My aim was to pay attention to the idea of female sacrification, promoted and glorified by the catholic church, which often leads to tolerance towards domestic violence and cruelty and war.
“Red sketchbook”
2024, Eschenau, Germany
On the edge
“Patalogy!!!”, - shouts a little boy, looking into the window of the studio. That's right, kid, we are pathological and marginal. On the banks of the Vistula River, in Praga Północ district of Warsaw, in a tenement house inhabited by people stigmatised by society groups, I found a studio on the ground floor and I feel good in this place.
I am also a marginal of "art world". I work here every day, I experiment with materials and techniques, from time to time immersing myself in the depths of my subconscious, bringing out into the world monsters from the past, present and future. It is also a place where I feel free - free to not adapt my practice to the norms and mainstream tendencies of the world of visual overproduction.
Isolation and marginality connect me to this place.
Being in a group always requires us to compromise, suppress our instincts and suppress our true feelings and desires. Being accepted by people is a much stronger instinct than the abstract idea of "freedom", because it is a guarantee of existence and survival. Ignoring group rules is a transgressive act and often means social suicide. I consider transgressions to be one of the strongest artistic resources, so I'm into it
“Why didn’t I go back to Ukraine?”
2022, Mózg, Bydgoszcz
The context of my performance was the ongoing war in my homeland, thousands of refugees in all of Europe and the changing attitude towards victims of war - from absolutely positive to something more negative, the tiredness of people of “bloody” images from the battle field and censored photos in social media. As a Ukraininan-born artist I did not see another topic to talk about but war, and my personal attitude towards idea of sacrifice. I picked the colour red - the colour of blood, flesh and sacrifice.
How does it feel to be a victim? Can the war be seen as the sacrifice of an animal, as redemption for the global world village to let us all keep having an easy consumer life?