Of Bread and Salt Audio Recordings
Exhibited in 2024 at Gallery 4Culture in Seattle, WA, Хліб-сіль: Of Bread and Salt is a series of portrait series of eight Ukrainian families who immigrated to Seattle as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The paintings are based on recorded interviews. Each conversation began with questions about the participants’ homes and the experience of leaving. During the exhibition, a recording played giving voice to the paintings. Moving between Ukrainian, Russian and English, the voices of the sitters recounted the individual experience of displacement, weaving together a collective narrative.
Below, navigate to individual stories and choose between original recordings or English translations
ALLA AND ANDRIJ
“… метки ставили для дронов, чтобы куда бить. Наш дом тоже пометили. И мы взяли щетку, и все это закрашивали, чтобы ночью к нам не прилетело ничего. Вот так спасали свой дом.”
“... they made marks for where drones were to hit. Our house was also marked. We got a brush, and we painted over these marks so that nothing would hit us at night. That's how we protected our house.”
-Alla