Hi, dear Olesya Dzhurayeva, what`s your routine at the moment?
Today is January 9, 2024, the 685th day of the war. The war that russia is waging against the Ukrainian people. It’s a difficult time, a time of bad news and constant anxiety. My family and I are in Kyiv. Children, despite everything, attend school, but during air attacks during the day they are at a bomb shelter. My husband and I are busy with current work and taking care of the family. My family and my creativity are what really don’t allow me to give up and help me get through this difficult time.
I created a series of works “Window of Hope” that remain relevant to this day, as the war continues. This series of woodcuts was created in the first two months of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine. My family and I were forced to leave Kyiv and resided in a village in the central part of Ukraine, where these works were created.
Each of the 6 prints is accompanied by a short text that was written by me at the time of the creation of the work. The first edition of these woodcuts was printed with Ukrainian chernozem (Ukrainian black soil). In August 2022, I printed these woodcuts in a conventional method from the original blocks in Berlin at the Corvinus Presse publishing house.
- “Window of Hope”, 15.03.2022, woodcut printed by Ukrainian black soil, 12,5×24,5cm
I’m devastated. Days pass and every morning waking up I realize that the war continues. The news plunges into apathy for everything. I can’t believe we’ve been living like this for 21 days. I can’t draw, because my art is about contemplation, about light, about the routine that you can enjoy. Now this is not possible. I am deprived of my usual tools, place of work, home. But the desire to live and work is stronger. I gathered my thoughts and do what keeps me afloat. The first woodcut of my life, printed with Ukrainian black soil. This is about the window of my hope, about the windows of all the destroyed houses and lives, about the fact that these are our houses and our land, about the fact that we cannot be broken, we cannot be defeated! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Our Heroes!“We stand on Our Own Land”, 19.03.2022, woodcut printed by Ukrainian black soil, 12,3×23,2cm
2. “We stand on Our Own Land”, 19.03.2022, woodcut printed by Ukrainian black soil, 12,3×23,2cm
Even during the war, there are things that continue to please you. Sunrises and sunsets, earth and sky. Spring. The sun that warms Our Land more and more every day. Grains will fall into the ground and this will give rise to something new and strong. Ukrainian black soil is the most fertile and rich soil in Europe. Our Land is like a constant, a symbol of constancy and rebirth. No bombs and aggression can break the spirit and the will to live of people born on this Land. We stand on Our Own Land. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Our Heroes!
3. “The house whose light went out forever”, 31.03.2022, woodcut printed by Ukrainian black soil, 13,5x23cm
War, 36 day. Since February 24, 2022, as a result of the armed aggression of russian federation in Ukraine, 148 children have already died, more than 232 were injured.
4. “The Abyss”, 10.04.2022, woodcut printed by Ukrainian black soil, 12,5x23cm
War, 48 day.The events of recent weeks are tearing the soul and heart apart. I think about it all the time, the fact that this gulf between the civilized world and the world of barbarism at its worst is growing every day. And this abyss is filled with tears, human suffering, pain. I know – all this madness will stop.. someday.. somehow.. But we will remember it forever.
5. “Tears”, 17.04.2022, woodcut printed by Ukrainian black soil, 14x23cm
Raining….Yesterday in the village where I am now, people on their knees met the coffin of a soldier who died a month ago. His body could not be found and identified for a long time. He was buried in a closed coffin.
Eternal Glory to Our Heroes!
16.04.2022
6. „Spring in the middle of the war“, 27.04.2022, woodcut printed by Ukrainian black soil, 14×22,5cm
I’m finally at home in Kyiv. On the way home, I looked out the window and the thought did not leave me that it’s good that some things cannot be changed or taken away. My country is at war, and outside the window everything is green and blooming. This year, the heat came late, but still, spring has already come! Spring in the middle of the war.
What`s now particularly important for all of us?
It is important to remember that after a storm the sun always comes out. It’s good that some things do not change even during war – spring comes, seasons change, children are born… This is exactly what reminds us that life goes on no matter what and we should appreciate it.
Today, more than ever, it is important to concentrate on everyday life and the small joys of each day – morning coffee or daily dinner with family, meetings with friends. These are joys that we do not notice in ordinary life, but today I perceive them completely differently. In the fall of 2022, I created the work “Just a glass of water” and wrote, accompanying it, “the worse everything around, the more beautiful simple things are.”
But to be less poetic, there is nothing more valuable than human life and human freedom. This is what we stand for – the right to independence and freedom.
„Just a glass of water“, 2022, linocut, 40x30cm
New start, new beginning. What will be essential and which roles will art play on society?
Human life is short, art is much more durable. It reflects the present and tells about the past.
What are you reading currently?
I am reading the book of the Ukrainian art critic Dmytro Horbachev entitled „He and I were Ukrainians“ Malevich and Ukraine“, which was published in 2006.
Which quote, text will you propose to us?
I would like to share a poem by my dear friend, British art critic Richard Noyce. It was written by him after the start of the war in Ukraine, in June 2022. I later illustrated it in the fall of 2022.
ALWAYS (for another war)
There is always a babushka
Headscarf, flowered dress, sad eyes lost in the distance,
There is always an old man
Gazing uncomprehendingly at the ruins of his home,
There is always a young child
Playing a solitary game on the rusted metal of war,
And always
A graveyard with markers, flowers, and the fresh-dug earth
of new graves.
The names of the places change
But are always unfamiliar, a lost geography
Newly written in the endless annals
Of another war.
From a distance
Always from this distance
The sounds are unheard
Except on the soundtracks of television news reports.
And always
The lingering questions.
Richard Noyce
PhD(hc), Writer and Artist
Berriew, 26th June 2022
Always (for another war), 2022, linocut, 28,7x20cm
Thank you very much for the interview and your great art, dear Olesya, all the best for you in these days!
5 questions on artists:
Olesya Dzhurayeva, Ukrainian artist
Born in 1982 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. In 1989 moved to Ukraine.
2006 – Graduated from Kyiv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Art and Design named after Mykhailo Boychuk, Faculty of Graphic Design.
2008 – Member of the National Union of Artist of Ukraine.
2023 – Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, United Kingdom.
Works as a professional graphic artist since 2002. Her artworks have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Ukraine and all around the world. She is an active member of the international printmaking community, participant and laureate of many printmaking competitions. Her printmaking work uses mainly techniques of relief printing.
Lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Fotos_ portrait/art Aidimir Dzhafarov.
Walter Pobaschnig _ 15.1.2024
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