Svitlana Mykhaylova-Melnychenko
multidisciplinary artist
Artist's statement:
The largest human protective organ is our skin. Sometimes the skin gets damaged, sometimes it gets frozen, sometimes pimples appear on it, but over time it is able to recover, protecting our muscles and internal organs from adverse conditions and circumstances of the outside.
The skin thus can be compared to the earth's crust. From space, you can see how the earth's surface changes with the change of season, with the change of population, with the change of administration, and even with the change of political conditions.
In 2017, I took screenshots of the Kherson region from space. Near Chaplynka, I was surprised by the even circles. It was the work of farmers, in particular, traces left by irrigation machines.
My father is a farmer. In 2023, when I asked my brother if dad had sown the fields, he replied angrily: "Only insane people can invest in planting crops in the occupied territories, everything is taken there." Farming has disappeared. And dad bought hives with bees, so he had something to get himself busy.
I took screenshots of this region again in 2023. The circles still exist. They are the same circles as in 2017. However, now instead of a real landscape, we see a virtual cast of the past. Since February 28, 2022, Google Maps will not be updated for the protection of Ukrainians.
Leather, firing, 30x30, 2023