It's so nice to see Ukrainian section at 21st International Biennial of Engraving Sarcelles-France 2023 and I'm lucky to be part of such great exhibition and printmaking festival!
I've printed this artwork during blackout in Kyiv in 2022. And this is what I wrote after finish yje artwork: The first weeks of the war. Sirens, news, fear and faith at the same time. During the air raids, my husband and I played a game of Renju. This game is preserved from childhood, it looks like a field with places for small balls. Renju is a game of concentration. The game helped us get rid of stress and calm down, distract us. I think that planning during the game helped me think later and take my time with my own decisions when emotions tried to take over. It's like training.
Renju is a strategy game. Each move is the construction of one's positions, bypassing or blocking the opponent's moves. It is necessary to place 5 balls in a row. And no matter how a strategy is created, there is always a moment of surprise - chance. And each game creates a new field, they are not repeated in order. Some games look like a geometric ornament or some strange code.
The history of the composition began with drawings of anti-tank hedgehogs and tires. I created etchings with four different anti-tank hedgehogs and a tire. These etchings became the basis for the series "Crosses and zeros", the composition "Plus".
Hedgehogs as a symbol of resistance, protection, defense.
Tires as a symbol of revolution, purification.
In the composition "Renju" tires and anti-tank hedgehogs met in dialogue.
The rhythm of etching printing, the rhythm of the game, the rhythm of war. This is all that I am breathing now, this is the rhythm of my breathing.
