Serious Play

Overview

For my second project I was tasked with the challenge of making a series of digital collages, a flat design and gif that considers the topic serious play using Adobe Photoshop. I ultimately decided to explore the intersection between politics and art with regard to the Soviet era art.

Initial Sketches

I started by creating 3 collages. The first two focused on Germany’s recent election. I love living in Germany but this past summer I grew concerned with the rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric. I centered those around Gigi D’Agnostino’s L’Amour Toujours which has been coopted by the far right as an anthem of hate.

My last collage was still political in nature and centered around the new laws that were instated in Ukraine that banned all references to Soviet Propaganda including art and music.

Previous Iterations

I reworked my first collage and shifted my elements. Then I created the GIF. The animation was still somewhat choppy at this point and something about the white background behind the text seemed visually disruptive.

Final Project

Stills from Tehinnah Kitcher “ВОЛЯ (FREEDOM)” 2024. Digital Collage GIF made in Photoshop

My final project focuses on the recent legislation that called for the dismantling of all soviet era propaganda including art and music. The biggest recent development in that regard was the dismantling of the communist era hammer and sickle from the Motherland Statue and the tearing down of soviet era art around Ukraine. But the law did not end here. Thousands of soviet era mosaics and murals have been destroyed. Members of Ukraine’s photographer’s guild have banded together to submit individual requests to preserve each and every individual soviet mosaic or mural for art purposes. I used an image of one of these saved mosaics as well as the law itself in the background.

The text slowly reveals itself to display the word ВОЛЯ. This word means will or freedom in Ukrainian. I struggled deciding between writing it in English or including a direct translation as a part of the work. I decided to keep it in Ukrainian and have the translation in paranthesis of the title of the work. This would preserve the visual aesthetics of the work as whole as well as the integrity of the message. I hope this sparks curiosity within the viewer to do additional research on their part.

Final tweaks: I added a gaussian blur to background, made the mural buildings move more seamlessly and changed the background of the text to make the piece flow better together.

Annotated Bibliography

Stukalo, Olga. “Original, but unprotected: how Ukraine destroys and preserves mosaic panels of the Soviet period – Rubryka.” Rubryka, December 14, 2023. https://rubryka.com/en/article/ukrayinski-mozayiky-radyanskogo-periodu/.

• This article helped me better understand the historical context as well as the legal implications of the various censorship laws surrounding Soviet propaganda. 

Yevgen, Nikiforov. “Yevgen Nikiforov – Ukrainian Soviet Mosaics (2013-2021),” n.d. https://nikiforovyevgen.com/ukrainian-mosaics.

• Yevgen Nikiforov’s Ukraine Soviet Mosaics project is a collection of pictures he took of mosaics all over Ukraine over the span of 7 years. I used one of these images in my collage

Катерина Яковленко. “Проєкт ‘Кінцева’ закликає зберегти мозаїки та автобусні зупинки у ТікТок.” Суспільне | Новини, April 5, 2023. https://suspilne.media/culture/435978-ce-ukrainska-spadsina-proekt-kinceva-zaklikae-zberegti-mozaiki-ta-avtobusni-zupinki/.

•  “Oleg Leviy (nicknamed “Jesus Loves Mosaics”) washes mosaics at public transport stops and popularizes the history of monumental art on TikTok and other social networks.” He fights for the preservation of art and I love his instragram (@icyce_ ) where he posts videos of him travelling to various bus stops to wash the forgotten mosaics. His project is titled  ‘Кінцева’ (Kintseva)

Higgins, Charlotte. “‘Casual Decommunisation’: Seeking to Save Ukraine’s Soviet-era    Modernist Masterpieces.” The Guardian, August 12, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/12/casual-decommunisation-seeking-to-save-ukraines-soviet-era-modernist-masterpieces.

• This article focuses on Dmytro Soloviov, a Ukrainian architecture photographer who has been fighting for the preservation of architecture amidst the strict decommunisation laws.

“What Is Volia, the Ukrainian Superpower, That Keeps Us Going?” Ukraine.ua, August 23, 2023. https://ukraine.ua/faq/volia/.

• I was really struggling when it came to deciding whether or not and how to translate ВОЛЯ (VOLIA). This article dives into the deep meanings held in that one word alone. Keeping the word in Ukrainian was definitely the best choice considering the weight it bears.