"Where Hammer and Sickle are, there are Death and Famine" (a tribute to Malevych, digital painting in Procreate)
It's tiiiiiiiiiime to post the art I did this semester. Or what, did I do it for nothing?
For this particular subject (Colour and Shape Study) we are always encouraged to experiment and research, and boy oh boy did I research and experiment.
So this whole semester I've been pouring my soul into something I call positive propaganda. Something meant to inform and make people think.
This particular work calls towards my interest and low-key obsession with Malevych and the way his roots were rewritten to fit into a russian narrative.
I used a sickle guillotine to symbolise that the revolution that was supposed to bring a better life to the working class and the villagers only brought even more pain and suffering in reality.
KEEP IN MIND that even in imprisonment and under torture in russia (!) Malevych called himself Ukrainian and Polish, and not russian. He also was one of the few artists depicting the tragedy of the Holodomor of 1933-1934 (an act of genocide against Ukrainians via an artificial famine instigated by the Soviet regime to control and suppress Ukrainians and their protesting potential). In his works, villagers are often depicted as deformed, missing limbs, to symbolise the destruction and enslavement of Ukrainians.
("Ukraine Enslaved", Malevych, 1930s)
The name and the biggest inspiration for my tribute is taken from this sketch:
(A pencil drawing by Malevych, signed “Where hammer and sickle are, there are death and famine” – lines of a folk song from the 1930s)
To me, the example of Malevych shows the fate of many Ukrainians under russia in its many forms, whether it's the tzar, the communist or the current one — you will be forced or lured to move to the colonial centre (because how else do you get any further in your craft?), you will be tortured, imprisoned and, in a lot of cases, murdered, but then your corpse will be paraded as a part of russian culture and your works will be assigned to your coloniser country.
And the way that breaks my heart is not something I can explain in words.
I often wonder where we and other russia-colonised countries would be if it wasn't for them.
Please check out the links I left in this small thought piece of mine if you want to know more about Ukrainian Malevych!
If you want to help Ukraine fight against the current russian genocide, you can visit SaveUkraine for more info!
Glory to Ukraine and may the victims of genocides and repressions never be forgotten.
Hey! Apparently I write articles on decolonising Ukrainian art now, too! You should check this one out, it's about Aivazovsky!
