Today, my friend sent me this YouTube video of an artist, Kseniya Simonova, on Ukraine’s Got Talent.
Let me start off by saying that I know virtually nothing about Ukraine’s history, much less their war history. Yet, I think regardless of whether you know about Ukraine’s history or not, Simonova tugs at the hearts of Ukranian nationals and non-nationals alike.
When I first saw the video, I responded to my friend by saying "I could talk about the poeticism of her work and all that, but for now all I can say is – wow, art." I felt that by talking about her art, I would be taking away it’s beauty and power. But I can’t resist, so allow me to ramble for a bit.
What strikes me the most about her 8 min 30 sec performance is its temporality and medium.
History, to a certain extent, is both temporary and not. It is temporary in that the event/person/time has come and gone. Yet it is made permanent through the stories we tell whether in the form of textbooks, novels, or art. Given this, the significance of Simonova’s art extends beyond the beauty of her work and to the inevitably temporary nature of her medium – sand.
She is an incredible artist, yes. Her ability to manipulate sand on a surface in relation to a soundscape provides for an incredible sensory experience. But why sand? With all that she is able to create with hands (literally) it seems like such a waste to use something that can so easily be destroyed by the blowing wind. But it has so much history! Sand is made of tiny particles of rock, crystals, and seashell and for all we know, they could have been part of cliffs, boulders, mountain sides, and sea creatures that existed since the beginning of time. Each particle has its own history as to where it came from and what journey it is going through. Get a bucket of sand and you have a bucket of history unknown to you.
What other images do sand evoke? In war, people witness their homes, whole neighborhoods, and even their entire city crumble to the ground and all that is left is a pile of dust and sand. Many people associate a beach with white sand as a serene place to be. Sand is both war and peace – a temporary time of destruction and tranquility.
Kseniya Simonova provides an experience. It is temporary yet profoundly moving. By addressing a painful time in history, her art represents both memory and therapy – a chance for some to remember and others to heal. And by using sand animation as her medium, she is not only given incredible flexibility in her art that allows her to tell a story – but more importantly, she provokes us to think about time and our relationship to time as we watch history retell history.
Wow that's an amazing video. Thanks for sharing it!
I loved this video & this post. Thanks Cass