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
FIALKORA AND ANATOLII
… і навіть з вречі, що там ми тільки якраз вирівняли землю, ми іноді просто сідали в машину, їхали туди і сиділи на цій землі що належить нам, це наш шматочок української землі де ми побудуємо наш дім.”
“...and even though we had just leveled the land there, sometimes we would just get in the car, drive there and sit on this land that belongs to us, this is our piece of Ukrainian land where we would build our house.
-Fialkora