«Acacia»
Birds and Flowers
Hand embroidery, intervention into old embroideries, 2025
A popular motif in arts and crafts of many cultures. I found birds and flowers among the embroideries I inherited from the women of my family - Great Grandma Valentyna, Grandma Vira, Mother Olga - as well. Finished and unfinished, recent and old. Birds and flowers were meant to decorate and bring joy to the house, in the form of cushions, curtains and tablecloth.
My generation and generations after me, unfortunately, have other associations when it comes to birds and flowers.
«Heranium. Gerbera»
Heranium, Gerbera, Orlan (Eagle) - are names for russian war drones that fly every day at Ukrainian cities to kill and destroy. Carnation (Gvozdika), Acacia and Malva - are the russian self-propelled guns.
«Carnation»
Tulip (Tiulpan) and Cornflower (Vasylyok) - are the russian heavy mortars. Chrysanthemum - is the russian anti-tank guided missile. Hyacinth - is the russian field gun. Peony (Pion) - is the russian self-propelled cannon.
«Peony. Vasyliok»
«Tulip. Chryzantemum»
Deadly weapons named after innocent flowers and birds. One of those dark jokes that are meant to distort the very perception of the reality, pollute mind and language, forever replace sense of peace and calmness with the sense of danger and fear. Now in Ukraine, hearing the word «Heranium» no one would think about the flower anymore. The fact that Ukrainian language shares many such words with the russian - and also that many Ukrainians understand russian language - makes it even worse. Some names you can replace - like for «Cornflower» the Ukrainian word would be «Voloshka» - but most of them remain, and are now forever poisoned.
«Orlan (Eagle)»
With these words from today’s reality of my family and my country I completed the unfinished and intervened the finished embroideries of my great grandmother, my grandmother and my mother.
How long will it take for the birds and flowers to win their names back?
