2022, digital photo artwork, USA
We perceive memories not from the point where they have happened but from the place and moment we are now. Thus my intention was to juxtapose and connect 2 realities: American and Ukrainian, and 2 times: past, when ukrainian opera singer Solomea Krushelnitska was singing about her motherland, and present, when Americans were listening to her song for the first time.
During her life, Solomea has been connecting cultures, and I feel it crucial to highlight this feature in the artwork. I proposed to 6 American strangers on the street to listen to the archival Solomiya Krushelnytska`s recording of the Ukrainian Folk Song `Dear Motherland`. For 1 minute music transferred them to the different times and spaces, while I was capturing this first encounter with Solomea`s oeuvre (and for most of them with Ukraine in general) in portraits. Portraits are followed by comments from those who were listening to the song.
“I am in a quiet place alone in nature”
“I am in the Metropolitan Opera in New York”
“It’s bizarre but I imagine myself in Canada where I am from while
listening to this song, I am in the mountains hiking in nature”
“I am walking in the forest on a foggy day.
I am not in America — somewhere in Europe, maybe Germany.
I feel sad while listening to this song”
I am not in America — somewhere in Europe, maybe Germany.
I feel sad while listening to this song”
“I imagine myself sitting at the opera house somewhere in Europe.
But I have never been to Europe”