We live in a maelstrom of acts of large-scale aggression, practically genocide at the international level and their parallel denial by the aggressor. The time of crisis of the institutions forces us to form new coordinate systems that built for us the idea of security. Relative security is how living conditions are characterized in the territory of Ukraine. This is a place where hostilities are currently taking place, and there is a constant threat of further rocket attacks. Security, which is the basis of any life here, has become ephemeral. The corporeal dimension of existence can simply be broken at any moment. Here, every sharp sound reminds the body of its fragility and defenselessness. But we are ready to give up this physical shell for our moral standards.

After Russia's full-scale invasion to Ukraine, the concept I was working on unfolded and manifested itself more clearly under new angles of vision. Vulnerability, the unreliability of our physicality, as well as the entire material world, has become a recognized common denominator.

In my works, the I appeal not only to everyone as a part of society, but also to different parts of the person itself. All my acquired hypostases: mother, daughter, sister, masculine parties receive specific experience in the war that russia has launched against Ukraine and the peoples that inhabit it. Each of the hypostases acts differently in the face of an extreme threat. As a result, enormous mental tension accumulates in our collective body.

It is not about exhaustion or suppression. All of the above are the first associations that are caused by such a depiction of the body. But I had no intention of resorting to these assumed categories. For me, it is important to work with subtle matters, and their comprehension, with tension and voids-gaps in ourselves, which happen to Ukrainians every day—with rage, loss of loved ones, disappointment, freezing. The androgynous figures show the unity and the commonality of their experiences. Masculine, feminine, childish, maternal — none of the mentioned parts dominate the works. They intensify, reflecting the pain of their evolution against the background of the extreme events of the war, and none of them is displaced. This allows me to say what it feels like to be a person with all the strength and fragility in war.

One of the stages of the project was implemented with the support of Jam Factory's Artists in War program.

Part of the works from the "Relative Security" project was presented in Kyiv in 2022 as part of the POP UP the War Series exhibition by the Imagine Point gallery.
Photo: Serhiy Mazurash

"Relative security" project was presented within the exhibition of MUHI 2021 prize winners: in progress, Ukrainian centre at the Embassy of Ukraine in France, Paris, 2022

The MUHi-2021 winners prize exhibition is a reflection of In Progress of the Shcherbenko Art Center Art Gallery as part of the Ukrainian Spring program, a project highlighting the reflections of three young Ukrainian artists on the topic of war. Marina Shcherbenko and award winners Pavla Nikitina, Olha Kuzyura and Maria Stoyanova took part in the opening of the exhibition.

Photo: Printemps Ukrainien / Українська Весна / Sherbenko Art Centre