An excerpt from my new interview to @iryna_belan for @revue_argument #9 about my #flowersorexplosions series and how my art changed with the full-scale invasion of russia to Ukraine.
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@iryna_belan: Nowadays it is trendy to talk about storytelling, about creating a narrative in painting. What role do you assign to storytelling in your work? Why, it seems to me, for the first time in your work, did you develop a powerful linguistic component?
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@kuznetsova_artist: Thank you that you have noticed that. I remember that in my interview with revue_argument in 2022, I said that I didn’t know what my art would be like after the full-scale invasion, but it would have to change, because everything had changed, including me. I can’t be in my bubble anymore, I feel like a part of Ukraine, my home, culture, and loved ones. And when our antagonists are trying to destroy all of this, I simply cannot ignore it and remain silent. I want to tell the world about it, despite the pain and difficulty of such a narrative. In the spring of 2022, when the Russian attack on us was so unexpected and the situation was critical, I had to act quickly and felt that I could not remain silent: I gave many oral and written interviews to journalists, TV channels, platforms, bloggers and art critics about the events that were happening right next door. I think I’ve learned how to tell stories since then. Art is an even better way, although it is a slower one, to tell the truth to the world and express your position.

And, indeed, in the Flowers or Explosions series, each painting is a special story, because it was created literally in the middle of the war, when everything was very acute, because we all closely followed what was happening in Ukraine every day…”
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‘Pink’s not dead’ (150*100 cm), mixed technique on canvas from Flowers or Explosions show, Kyiv, 2023, @forsagallery