Ukrainian artists create works of art from battlefield rubble
Jun. 21—When Yaroslava Tkachuk attempted to ship her painting Жінка (Woman) to the United States to be part of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine, she learned that the bullet casings she had incorporated couldn't be sent via mail.
The Museum of International Folk Art, which is hosting the exhibition through April 20, 2025, found a military supply company in the U.S. that sells used casings, due to the Ukrainian rules around shipping explosives and weaponry-related materials out of the country. Tkachuk removed the original casings and sent the art, then came to Santa Fe to affix the casings secured by the museum.
Tkachuk is one of two featured artists — she's coming from Ukraine, while Serhii Polubotko will visit from New York City, where he now lives — set to attend an opening ceremony this weekend. Amidst Cries from the Rubble co-curator Laura J. Mueller, who serves as the museum's deputy director, is proud of how quickly the museum pulled the exhibition together.
"It's in the daily news cycle," she says of Russia's attack on Ukraine. "Most of our projects are two to three years in the making; this project was six months. The reason we've had such an amazing outpouring of support is because it is so timely. Every person we've gone to from day one, from getting it on the schedule to getting funding to make it possible for us to move forward, the support has been overwhelming. Clearly, this is on everyone's mind."
details
Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine
* Opening 1-4 p.m. Sunday, June 23
* Performance by the Vesnianka Dance Ensemble of New Mexico, 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.; artist and curator panel featuring Laura J. Mueller, Nina Medvinskaya, Sasha Samuels, Serhii Polubotko, and Yaroslava Tkachuk, 2 p.m.
* Museum of International Folk Art
* 706 Camino Lejo
* $7-$12
Because it's on everyone's mind, Mueller knows that the artists' appearance will stir emotions for attendees who want to express support and love.
"I don't know exactly how it's going to go, and I think it's going to be really interesting to see what kind of response we get," she says. "I can't tell you how many times during the process of putting this together it just hits you. You're dealing with people who have lost loved ones. Their homes have been destroyed. Their schools have been destroyed. It's just heart-wrenching. I can't tell you how many times I just broke down. It was really emotional, and this exhibition is going to be extremely powerful."
The exhibition features more than 60 pieces made by about a dozen artists. It consists of large augmented photographs such as Tkachuk's, as well as jewelry and art pieces fashioned from shell casings, ammunition boxes, and helmets taken from the battlefield. Polubotko's Слава соняху (Glory to the Sunflower) uses brass ammunition casings, steel, and wood to mimic the namesake flowers. His piece Зародження (Genesis) is a collection of small decorative metal eggs fashioned from casings, steel, and brass wire.
Diana — Goddess of the Hunt and Neptune — God of the Seas are part of Marta Syrko's series Wrapping Art — Art of Salvation, commissioned for the Santa Fe show. Each consists of photography with painting and digital postproduction, and the images at the center are a somber reminder of war's danger to art. Both show statues in Rynok Square in Syrko's native Lviv, where residents have protectively wrapped statues to protect against Russian attacks. Syrko is set to visit the Museum of International Folk Art at the end of July; the museum will provide details about how the public can interact with her.
Lviv is about 45 miles from the Poland border and 600 miles from the Russian border but has been attacked by Russian troops.
Mueller says the ambitious timeline of assembling and installing Amidst Cries from the Rubble took its toll on museum staffers and her co-curators, Nina Medvinskaya and Sasha Samuels.
"It meant a lot of stress," Mueller says. "These projects are stressful no matter what — even if you do them in two years or three years — but this project was insanely ambitious."
Mueller can only recall one other curatorial experience that packed a similar emotional punch.
"My background actually is in Japanese art," she says. "I was previously the head of curatorial of exhibitions at the Portland Japanese Garden, and I had done an exhibition of a series of photographs by the contemporary photographer Miyako Ishiuchi. She went into the storerooms of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and took photographs of objects from the bombings. We created an exhibition that was almost like a religious setting."
Amidst Cries from the Rubble was inspired by an untitled poem by Ukrainian Lina Kostenko, who's now 94. The folk art museum had it translated from Ukrainian to English and Spanish; those translations are at the end of this story.
The museum contacted Kostenko to get her permission to use her words.
"Through a maze of people, we were finally able to get through to her daughter, who kind of manages her estate," Mueller says. "They have been remarkably positive and supportive throughout this. They've given us full rights to use the poem in our exhibition. They gave rights to the museum shop; it's going to be producing note cards and a tote bag with that poem on it."
The exhibition's contents are set to be returned to the artists and owners once the show ends. In other words, it's for Santa Fe eyes only.
"What I immediately thought was, 'We're going to put this together, and it's going to travel the world,'" Mueller says of her initial ambitions for Amidst Cries from the Rubble. "But it's difficult just getting these objects here, and it quickly became obvious that it was going to be impossible for this to travel anywhere."
TRANSLATION
Lina Kostenko's poem (English)
A little longer, a little longer — and cherry blossoms will bloom,
alighting petals, the dreams of unearthed roots.
War paints watercolors with blood.
Its palette — the ashes of fires.
Its landscape — the ruins of buildings.
Empty streets as faded pastels.
Perhaps somewhere amidst cries from the rubble,
a tulip will suddenly sprout.
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Lina Kostenko's poem (Spanish)
Un poquito más, un poquito más — y los cerezos florecerán,
pétalos descendiendo, los sueños de raíces desenterradas.
La guerra pinta las acuarelas con sangre.
Su paleta — las cenizas de los fuegos.
Su paisaje — las ruinas de los edificios.
Calles vacías como descoloridos colores pastel.
Quizás en algún lugar entre los gritos del escombro,
De repente brotará un tulipán.