Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the news have reported on town after town which has become famous for either being destroyed, occupied, or for being the location of a major battle. The siege of Mariupol and the Bucha massacre are two such names made famous in the news media early in the war.
Using found Russian postcards, depicting famous places, I have put the names of some of these towns on each card, where in Russia you are not allowed to even speak their names. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new reality materialized for people of Ukrainian heritage such as myself. Notions of sovereignty, democracy, and social responsibility suddenly took on a greater sense of urgency.
Vincent Lloyd writes, “The inertia of the ordinary sweeps us along, muting all but the most mundane worries. But in moments of tragedy, of deep decision, of disruption, of evil, in moments when we step out of the pull of the ordinary, we understand that something is amiss in the world.”
The sense of something amiss in the world often informs my art practice, but now affects me with an enhanced sense of magnitude and purpose.
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Greetings from Ukraine
15 x 10cm paper with letraset, 2024
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Denise Hawrysio was born in Toronto and currently lives in London, UK. She received her BFA from Queen’s University, Canada, and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her trans-disciplinary work includes video, print, artist books, and site-specific installation, and she has exhibited throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada. Denise has been an active member of London’s art scene for many years, founding her own project space in the early ’90s, working collectively with many of Britain’s leading artists. She situates her work within borderline situations whereby meaning arises through experience, exposing complex and paradoxical identities, probing perceived and
subliminal ideals of socially secure ideologies.
Denise has received fellowships for residencies at the MacDowell Colony, NSCAD University, Banff Centre for the Arts, University of British Columbia, and University of Alberta. Her works are in collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Chelsea Art Library, Yale University, Ryerson Image Collection, Henry Moore Foundation, Manchester Metropolitan, Surrey Art Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery, Simon Fraser University the Bruce Peel Collection, Tate Britain, and National Gallery of Canada. She has taught at the Architectural Association of Great Britain, University of British Columbia and University of the Arts, London.
