"There are no tyrannies that would not try to limit art, because they can see the power of art. Art can tell the world things that cannot be shared otherwise. It is art that conveys feelings."

 - Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine 

Уяви Україну – Маленькі та великі історії / Imagine Ukraine – Small and Big Stories

(c)Оксана Шачко / Oksana Shachko
Untitled (Crucified Jesus with the Erection from Iconoclast series) / Без назви (Розіп’ятий Ісус з ерекцією з серії «Іконоборство»), 2016
Painting , 33 x 23.5 cm
tempera, egg yolk, gold leaf, wood

Oksana Shachko was trained from a young age in traditional Orthodox icon painting. She returned to this style of painting later in life during her period of exile in Paris, producing a series of paintings collectively titled Iconoclast. Each painting appears in the first instance as a traditional scene, yet we see details that have been individually subverted. In a set of two paintings depicting the crucifixion, we see one is a woman. The other is male, and on closer inspection we see his penis is erect (which often happens during the moment men pass away). Such features, though provocative for some, were not intended as anti-religious, but both a statement against indoctrination and a call for openness.