Collaboration with Nadiya Petrovska
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.
Size: 12 x 13 x15 cm
For the entire world, Ukraine has become a mirror in which its true essence is reflected—the essence of individuals, groups, peoples, and organizations alike. Let us, at last, look honestly into it ourselves. Perhaps we will not get a second chance to do so. Perhaps this is the most important thing that was meant to happen to us in this war.
This series is not about the trauma of the war-torn Ukrainian people. This trauma lives in all of us whose ancestors survived the horror of world wars and armed conflicts. It never left. In Kherson, during the occupation and long after, in the lines for potatoes and humanitarian aid, in the shattered windows of looted stores, and in the corridors of military recruitment offices, I saw it awakening. I saw how the traumatic memories of our ancestors came to life through us.
Series concept
The gift that no one would want to receive.
No one in their right mind would ever want this gift. Yet, fate and our nervous systems grant it to us, leaving us with no other choice. War is a profound trauma. While the conflict will eventually end, the triggers—certain objects, sounds, and places—will repeatedly pull us back into the raw feelings and states we once experienced. These memories settle at the bottom of our psyche like a heavy block of concrete, lying dormant as long as they are connected to intense negative emotions. We cannot move forward until we have reconsidered these events and understood how they have reshaped our personalities and values for the better. Only then can these memories be transformed into the foundational blocks of the person we are yet to become. Triggers cannot be escaped; they must be confronted and discharged so they are not inherited by our children.