ERASURE: Memory and The Power of Politics

ERASURE: Memory and The Power of Politics is a performative homage to the victims of Stalin’s reign in Ukraine. Through my research I have culled two sets of images. The first shows children who were part of the Soviet Politburo instituted policy of artificial starvation which resulted in the deaths of approximately 4 million people (Ukraine 1932-1933); images of starving children. The second, points to the repression of the Ukrainian cultural and political class. The source imagery came from a box of photographs belonging to my mother-in-law, a survivor of that period. These fragile images with torn and missing pieces were combined with other vintage photographs from my collection and recent work in Ukraine. ERASURE explores the position of the individual within the historical mechanisms of public ideology, and incorporates profoundly engaging personal narratives of vulnerability, betrayal, identity, family, aging, and death. The series underscores the theatre of political power and serve as a metaphor elucidating the creation, performance, and maintenance of societies of fear. The damaged and ghostlike images are reworked, and deconstructed in place and time. The harsh reality of the imagery makes the process slow and. ERASURE is thus a movement of reclamation of individual and collective history and memory. Since, it is not possible to change history, I work with the images and materials of that place and time. The motivation for this work stems from a lifetime struggle with identity and difficulty in coming to terms with the paradoxical experiences of Ukrainians in my homeland of Canada and Ukraine during that period of history. My artistic discourse is simultaneously an act of remembrance, depiction and restitution.