Alona Kirichenko

Reminding. Rethinking. Rebuilding., 2023

Akryl
70 x 50 cm

All money goes to help Ukraine

I never tell the full meaning of my paintings in order to keep a little sense of mystery, but I like to talk about the main details to navigate to direction of my thoughts.

The characters in the foreground are taken from the old Ukrainian film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors".

In my painting, this foreground means an allegory - the difficult fate of the Ukrainian people, who carry a heavy burden, doing hard work while not knowing what awaits them (like walking forward with covered eyes).
Note the yoke that holds these figures together isn't closed on both sides, indicating freedom and human self-choice to unite for working together.

People with ox yoke are also reminiscent of the allegorical title of the book "Do oxen low when mangers are full?" by Panas Myrny, which means that people turn violent because of the bad and unfair treatment of them.
Ukraine had many times in its history when people needed to fight for their rights. One of the great examples is the revolution in 2014.

The background of the paintings took me the most time. I drew these abstract smears until they started to resemble images that fit the picture idea.
I am very happy with the background, it's like a picture in a picture.
The first thing that catches your eye is some kind of atmosphere of chaos, big amounts of processes. This is how I see Ukraine now, it is both a visual state of a country that is in a horrible war, but also a wave of thoughts in the minds of Ukrainians, a reassessment of moral values, their culture and history, a rethinking of who we are and who we want to be.
Abstract figures and processes - of course, everyone will see different things. In any way, the background connects the past and present of Ukraine.

The third detail of the picture is flying Tetris figures. I wanted to show by this that no matter what, something new is built in Ukraine. It is built by ordinary people, whose hearts burn and shine brightly, encouraging them to come up with new ideas and work hard to help their country, each other and the Ukrainian army.
Luminous Tetris figures display both the present and hope for the future. These are like millions of those burning hearts that are connected together.