For Ukraine: the Deti Series

About For Ukraine & the Deti Series

In March 2022, I did an artist residency in Italy at Art Aia – Creatives In Residence. I titled the residency For Ukraine. I sought to create artwork which could effectively challenge the lies and relentless propaganda which the Putin regime churns out in order to rally popular support for contemporary Russian imperialism. Russia’s aggression had recently escalated dramatically with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine starting on February 24th, 2022.
On March 16th, 2022 the Russians brutally shelled a theater-turned-bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine.

The shelter was targeted and obliterated despite the word “CHILDREN” writ large, in Russian, in in he hopes that the Russian invaders would then avoid bombing the site.

(The Russian-language word for children is дети (Cyrillic) or deti (Roman))

Most accounts estimate there was around 1,000 people sheltering in the theater at the time of the bombing. An Associated Press investigation estimated there were roughly 600 fatalities. The OSCE estimates there are 150 survivors. (Source: CBC)

Rescue efforts were heavily thwarted as the bombing was part of an overall Russian invasion of Mariupol. The siege of Mariupol lasted from February 24th to March 20th, 2022 and resulted in many thousands of civilian deaths, injuries and massive displacement of the population.

This singular detail, this plea for mercy, rose above the daily flood of images from the war which I would take in from the news media. I found the detail of this plea for mercy to be a stunningly concise and graphic representation of the sort of war crimes Russia was (and still is) committing in Ukraine everyday. Powerfully self-evident. I thought if only we could highlight this image, it would not be lost in the barrage of documentation of the war. The image could stand alone as evidence in court. The image contained the power to feed the mind with resistance to the brainwashing of pro-Kremlin propaganda. We must never forget this image, I thought. It must be highlighted and made redundant, like a rhetorical argument.

On March 17th, when contemplating this, I produced the drawing “Deti I” and published it here as well as on Twitter, instagram and Facebook.
Then with the support of Art Aia – Creatives In Residence, I created a large-scale installation with video recording titled “Deti II” and published the short-version video of “Deti II” on my website as well as on instagaram, Youtube and Facebook of March 19th.

Shortly thereafter, an international trend deti-installations emerged. All very similar to mine. Deti-installations at the National Theatre of Czechia and the National Theatre of Poland followed the publication of my “Deti I” and “Deti II” by a number of days. Soon after these high-profile productions, a great many more deti-installations appeared at numerous other venues across Europe. (See Blog below for photos.)

Artist credit was rarely given for any of the promotionals I could find for these deti-installations. Nevertheless, I was astonished that my Deti Series might very well have sparked off an high-profile and international trend. This is the sort of life I had dreamt that this art piece could achieve if my mission of fighting the Russian lies proved successful. The life course of the series appeared to be exceeding my wildest dreams, by quickly springing out of my own hands and living on to be reproduced and reinvented by people and institutions far beyond my personal scope. Even if the deti-installation trend may have been born without my Deti Series, I am honored that my “Deti II” installation was the first of its kind, and I am grateful my work got to be part of this greater movement

for Ukraine.

April 12th: Day 48 of the Russian invasion.

I have not found any new reports on the theater since March 25th. However, recent reports are saying tens of thousands may be dead at Mariupol and worse…

From the news:

“Mariupol Mayor Says Siege Has Killed More than 10K Civilians”

YURAS KARMANAU, ADAM SCHRECK and CARA ANNA, April 12th, 2022.

From the news. March 17th, 2022:

VIDEO

“Bodies Litter The Floors Of Mariupol Hospital As Ukrainian Medics Fight To Save Lives”

by AP, March 17, 2022