Kharkiv art

Photo essay

I got the opportunity to finally spend some time in Kharkiv recently. Although I have been in Ukraine for over two years now, I had only passed through the outskirts of this big country’s second largest city before that. In addition to lots of pleasing architecture in this city with a pre-war population of 1.5 million (Kharkiv Photo Essay #1), I came across a lot of art of every description while exploring the city some while I was there. So much so, that I decided to do a whole photo essay post on it.

I will provide some context and descriptions for the art below, which ranges from commercial advertising to graffiti, and everything in between, including posters, sculpture, and children’s art on display. The latter is quite moving, and worth the look, given that their war-time experiences are reflected in their art.

You see a lot of military posters around Ukraine. Some from specific units trying to recruit, some from the national government, a lot of them very well done, some using humor, as here, where it says “We are preparing for any eventuality”. The cat one I lead this post with references another common iconography for the enemy. Most folks are aware that some Ukrainians refer to the invading Russians as “orcs” a la Tolkein’s orcs, but some popular Ukrainian recruiting posters also reference the seemingly endless waves of apparently mindless Russians assaulting us as zombies, another good fit. Normally, I shy away from thinking of an enemy as less than human, but not only do both analogies fit very well here, I can understand the utility here on a number of levels. It is horrifying to have to kill people to stop them from killing and torturing you and your family and people. It is helpful to be able to compartmentalize that to some degree.

Speaking of pop culture references, this Game of Thrones inspired chair made of relics of the war is displayed in a large square in Kharkiv.

Art is everywhere in Kharkiv, a very cosmopolitan city. I meant to take a picture of a similar piece gracing the other side of this businesses storefront but sadly, neglected to.

This amazing sculpture is outside the opera and ballet theatre. I especially like the octopus tentacles.

When I first saw this piece from across the street, it acted as an optical illusion to me. I thought that the doorway was open, and the piece of poetry (for that is what it is) was painted on the far side wall of the passageway.

It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized my eyes were playing tricks on me. The poet, Artem Polezhaka is on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artempolezhaka/

It is a hopeful piece, about rebuilding after the war. It isn’t uncommon for Ukrainians to beautify the plywood they have had to use to cover damage and to protect shop windows from blasts and shrapnel:

This powerful piece commemorates the children killed by Russia in this war.

The stuffed animals left as offerings by folks is at least as impactful as the sculpture.

Speaking of children, here we have another poster about warning them about unexploded ordnance, in this case, related to going fishing. Good advice, we don’t always think about bombs hiding under the water as well.

I had forgotten that in some parts of the US it is sacrilege to put ketchup on hot dogs, and posting this photo in a place I frequent on the internet started started a small war amongst partisans of either side of that debate as bad as any pie versus cake or 9mm vs .45 fight. Eventually, it was somewhat defused by someone pointing out that since the hotdog itself is not dressed with any ketchup, perhaps they are intended for the fries?

While not really art, this was kind of displayed like it, with four posters on how to identify land mines up on the side of a building where passerby would see them. Of particular interest here are the two specifically designed to hide amongst foliage. For a while after I got to Ukraine, I thought the “butterfly” mines (top left) only came in that fluorescent green plastic color and an unnatural sort of orange color. I was somewhat frightened to learn that they also come in that brown color, which is much harder to spot. I hadn’t been looking out for that color+shape combo, and for all I know I stepped right over and next to some of those before I learned that. Those small mines are designed to destroy your foot. I personally know of two soldiers who have stepped on them.

I thought the use of a US Viet Nam war era helmet here as graffiti to be interesting. It is surprising to me how much of the music of my father’s war is also the music of this war, but I think that thanks to Hollywood’s pervasive influence, not only is some music contemporary to that war now just considered ‘war music’, but also certain images transcend that conflict and convey particular feelings associated with that conflict, but common to others as well.

I don’t know anything about this piece. Maybe the artist lived in this building? I thought it interesting that the reproduction of the stamp included a facsimile of the postmark in this installation on the face of a building. I did find the placement somewhat odd, as most of the wall was bare, and yet the art was installed kind of shoehorned between the street address and the drainpipe.

This next gallery is from an outdoor display of children’s art. I say children, but obviously, some of them must be nearing adulthood given the complexity and skill of the work. All of them are striking. I recommend zooming in on each picture and taking in each child’s piece.

“Reality reminds me of a movie I haven’t seen”. The five letters up top spell out ‘life’.

Special thanks to my translator from afar “Fuckin’ Uke” Mike.

I’ll be interspersing my reporting from the front line with other posts of life here, I think I will do one of toys next, but we’ll see if I can’t put together a piece of reporting from the front line beforehand. It’s more difficult since I lost access to all my notes. I certainly have enough images of interesting automobiles to make at least one of those as well, and have a few other ideas simmering. I regret not having time to immediately write when things happen at the front, and then often not being in the right head space or conditions being right for me to write for some time afterwards sometimes. I hope to eventually be able to recall much of it though. And of course, there will be new ones for some time to come.

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