Spinal columns, 2018
Armature, dry sunflowers. 200х70х200 cm.
To be sunflower on the fields of Donbass means to survive under the burning sun, to overcome within bloody glow of war in Eastern Ukraine and then to back home und grow into new soil of peaceful life.
Sunflower is an important sowing culture in Ukraine. It is a symbol of Ukraine, where the sky is blue and the fields are yellow. But at War in Donbass it obtains new meanings. Sunflowers can protect you from an enemy, sunflowers can kill you. At least the field of sunflowers almost killed my friend at this war. Now it is a shelter and a grave for thousands of people.
Sunflowers are countless stories about death and salvation. Thousands of girls and boys, who were pulled up by the war, will back home to grow through again. Will they bloom again? Somebody grows a brand-new steel spinal column; somebody just breaks and somebody remains within the sunflower field to feed Ukrainian black soil. There are countless stories with no reasonable finale. Everything is settled by your new spinal column, if you have enough time to grow it thorough.
Spinal columns are built by the war, they help to stand in a peaceful life.
Olga Chekotovska 