Through large-scale watercolor portraits and oral histories, Sofya Belinskaya chronicles the experiences of families, many living in Seattle, who were uprooted due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She centers the question: How do we remember home when we are displaced?
Each painting begins as a conversation with the family in an attempt to weave together fragments of home. Through the intimate act of sharing stories, symbols, mementos, animal companions, and everyday objects emerge and are rendered in technicolor as an intricate web of memories set within intimate spaces. Belinskaya pairs these ethereal scenes with anecdotal audio excerpts; her participant’s voices delineate the collective yet uniquely individual experience of displacement.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports there are 5.1 million internally displaced people in Ukraine and 6.2 million refugees from Ukraine globally. The process of recalling and commemorating markers of identity, tradition, and place for those separated from their homeland reveals a mechanism for coping through preservation. Хліб-сіль: Of Bread and Salt is a reminder of the toll international wars inflict on worldwide communities and an acknowledgement of our resolute perseverance.
