Elena Alyabyeva - Artist - Conflict Art
Elena Alyabyeva thank you for taking time for this interview. Your bio to get my readers to know you. Ms. Alyabyeva was born in Kharkiv, a big industrial city in Eastern Ukraine very close to the border with Russia. Her artistic evolution, and the upheaval caused by the Russian invasion deeply influenced her work. Fleeing the conflict, Elena and her family experienced the hardships of displacement, finding refuge in Uzhhorod. Despite the challenges, Elena found solace in art, expressing her resilience through vibrant yet grounded compositions
1. Can you share the inspiration behind The White Town series and what led you to explore themes of despair and renewal in your art? Specifically on Window.
https://www.conflictedart.com/elena-alyabyeva-white-town
The “White City” series was created immediately after the forced move to Uzhgorod. After the start of a large-scale war in February 2022, my family and I left our home and evacuated to Uzhgorod. For the first months, we lived on the floor of the gymnasium of one of the children's cultural institutions along with other refugees. At that time, I experienced a whole range of negative feelings: fear, anxiety, hopelessness, hatred, etc. It was as if I was in a dark room with no light or exit. Everything was black. One day I felt that this could not continue. I went outside, taking my sketchbook with me.
I felt the spring wind and went for a walk in the city, looking at the ancient architecture. I made sketches and sketches. Sitting on the bank of a raging river, I felt that I had to let go of the negativity and, despite the catastrophic events of the war, continue to live. So hope entered my heart. Together with it, the "White City" series was born. It was a new stage and I accepted it. One of the paintings in the series is "Window". This work is about how I let light into my life. There should always be light in a person's life, no matter how difficult the period. Through this window, spring, light, warm air and rays of hope came to me in the dark room of hopelessness.
2. How did your experiences during the Russian invasion and your subsequent displacement influence your artistic process and choices?
Before the war, my art was filled with bright colors and happy subjects. People told me that my paintings bring joy. And the process of their creation brought me real pleasure. The war took all this away. My paintings remained in the workshop in Kharkiv. I left for evacuation, taking with me only a small set of paints and brushes. But I couldn't work with color at all, the war seemed to take away all the colors and shades from me. At first I thought that I would never be able to draw again. But the emotions accumulated inside demanded an outlet. The series of works "White City" is made in black and white. Black is a symbol of grief and the past that had to be experienced, white is a symbol of acceptance and new hope.Now my creativity is again filled with bright colors, because I want to bring joy to myself and people again.
3. In your statement, you mention finding solace in art. Can you elaborate on how creating your drawings helped you cope during such a tumultuous time?
Yes, art really helped me return to a precious life. I express my life through my works. This is my way of knowing the world and myself. After the beginning of the military invasion, art became my therapy. Perhaps, thanks to this, I continue to believe in the best.
4. The initial pieces in The White Town were created daily over six days. What did that rapid creative process reveal to you about your emotional state at that time?
Each of the drawings in this series is a reflection of my inner state at the moment of their creation. I found a consonance between the external and the internal. I saw that the outside world was a big mirror in which my feelings were reflected. I drew quickly so as not to lose this feeling. For example, the fast flow of the river seemed to take away with it everything bad that had happened to me, making room for calm and new creation. The wind that I felt gave care and warmth. The rain washed away the grief I had experienced, and the entire city around became a safe fortress and my new home. At that moment I felt exactly this way and tried to record it on paper as quickly as possible.
5. How do you perceive the transition from vulnerability to newfound purpose in your art? What does this evolution signify for you personally?
It was this series “White City” that became my transition from a period of fear, grief and loss to a new stage of hope and revival. I realized how important it is to learn to live “here and now.” Previous values have faded into the background. Only the life and health of my loved ones became important. A ray of sunshine, a child's smile, the opportunity to spend time with your family - that's what really matters. War takes lives, divides people, takes away homes. But it can't take away what's inside of me. Love and faith.
6. You express a commitment to savoring every moment upon returning to Kharkiv. How do you envision incorporating this perspective into your future works?
I believe in the victory of Ukraine and a peaceful, beautiful future. I will definitely return to my incredibly beautiful, peaceful Kharkov. The first thing in my plans is to draw my city. When I return, I will paint my Kharkov. I want to see it reborn, my strong hero city. I dream of making a series of works about Kharkov, filled with light and bright colors.
7. Each drawing in the series is described as a vivid portrayal drawn from life experiences. Can you share a specific personal experience that deeply influenced one of the pieces?
I immediately thought of a drawing with a bridge over the Uzh River. I sat on the embankment and looked at the stormy river that had overflowed its banks. I thought that the river has been flowing here for many centuries. She saw many different events. Generations of people came and went, times changed. History flowed along with the stormy flow of the river. I thought about how similar this is to human life. The river was a symbol of life. I felt that I could let go of all my fears and anxieties with the stormy flows of the river. And then the river flow will clear, become clean and transparent. At that moment I felt like a river was flowing through me or I was part of it.
8. What message or feeling do you hope viewers take away from The White Town series, and how do you think it reflects the broader human experience of resilience?
I am happy that my works, along with the works of other Ukrainian artists, are taking part in the “Conflicted art” project. It is very important that viewers have the opportunity to look “through our eyes” at the events that the people of Ukraine are experiencing as a result of Russian military aggression. Through the prism of my drawings, viewers can feel what I feel. Perhaps this will resonate. My main message is to always keep hope in your heart because light always conquers darkness.
Essay
Resilience in Ruins: The War in Ukraine Through Elena Alyabyeva’s Window part of White Town Series
Window by Elena Alyabyeva permission granted.
“Window” piece from Elena Alyabyeva’s White Town series. Capturing its emotional depth of destruction in black and white. Her contextual black and white makes one think of a window and the destruction of her reality. How her experience in an intense war can be viewed as black and white through a “Window”. How her life is displaced through war. And how destruction can be emotionally drawn in black and white.
Alyabyeva’s art captures the darkness of war. Through the silence of black and white landscape through a “Window” into a forgotten war from 2014 to 2022 to the present day. Her piece in conflict art from Ukraine shows people’s insight into a dark piece of time.
How does the question of war influence Alyabyeva’s art? Her experience in the forgotten conflict of Ukraine’s artists. Contributes a very black-and-white image of the impact the war has on one side of a very dark war.
The war in Ukraine is complex to those who do not read history. Russia controlled Ukraine from the 1790s until the 1990s. When the country was granted independence. On conditional terms that both the Western powers agreed on. Meaning? No thermonuclear weapons in Ukraine. The latest new technology by Ukraine to use a Toyota car hydrogen power source as a bomb against Russia. Shows Ukraine started a thermonuclear war. That could escalate if not discussed by those in power. Alyabyeva’s Kharkiv impact could be like her black and white drawings. Showing that in war there is black and white.
The question is: will conflict artists have any historical noteworthy change? To assert their national identity where most regions have only Russians left in them? Meaning a majority of Ukraine’s that could leave. Leaving Russians in the area to deal with what is a national identity? Meaning? Something like 38 to 89 percent of Ukraine’s eastern regions now are Russians. Because the non-Russians that could leave have left. Thus, the conflict artists are showing both a Russian influence and Ukraine national identity.
Art, specifically “Window”, is used as a resistance for those who do not carry weapons. And for good reasons. Artists are extremists. Alyabyeva’s work, a tradition in her own right, highlights how reality can be black and white.
The question: in reality. The threat of thermonuclear war from this conflict between Russia and the Western society? Can art express resistance to their pushes towards the end of reality? Can Alyabyeva’s work maintain the culture of Ukraine and Russia during these times of crisis?
The answer? Only to those who take the time and realize the meaning behind the art, the artist, and the conflict can change that window.
The viewer needs to realize the Conflict art exists to begin with. Look at Elena Alyabyeva’s White Town series. Each image of her series “White Town” provides a journey. Which one has to ask the artist herself what each means? Maybe a window into her soul?
Each of her images to quote “chronicles a profound journey from despair, loss, and vulnerability to newfound purpose, renewal, and stability. Serving as the artist’s introspective exploration of the past, it offers a poignant lesson in embracing the present and striving for a brighter future. It encapsulates Elena’s realization that returning to her native city will be a transformed experience, marked by a commitment to savoring every moment with greater richness and significance. Each drawing is a vivid portrayal drawn from life experiences.”
The quest for insight into her mind of each work one has to really look at the imagines. Get into Elen’s mind set on her intentions and read about what type of story she is telling.
One has to realize her pieces as communicating her personal story. On a universal topic of disappearance in a war brought to her by people with money.
The images reflect a bleak truth about war. Black and White each scene holds how war changes the psychological journey. Each person sees the common ordinary reality around them. And brings a broader question - without context - of conflict art. Would you even know her name?
This leaves art to write the important part of history. To interpret Alyabyeva imagines via her statement online and the imagines themselves. What significance and art mean without the written words? To show what one is seeing and pondering about “Window”.
Without the contextual notes of conflict art on “Window” or her own statements in the “White Town Series”. The images lose context, meaning, and understanding. On how conflict art is produced, according to the artist and critic.
Emotional as an art critic without words - the story could not be told without words to influence the art itself of “Window”.
If there were no words. The public perception of conflict art and specifically “Window”, the role of art in Ukraine, would fade away with no one caring.
The impact of the art “Window” all depends on those who view art. And the sadness of the impact of imagining without the right context gets overlooked.
The real question in promoting conflict art is how can one write to create empathy for the artist? Without knowing Alyabyeva’s statement. One would not realize what her “White Town Series” represents. Emotional and international during the war in Ukraine and Russia.
Without people viewing this conflict art, how would those of the art class even know that this art exists? Politicians cut art and culture budgets. It is the first cost effective measure in most of society. To kill culture is to kill the budget for culture. Consequently, this eliminates the small group of individuals who are interested or capable of understanding the essence of conflict art. And the global community has taken sides.
Consider the impact of words and art on how the Ukraine war is about. Put a human face to the war.
Hopefully, this war will cease before additional nuclear weapons are deployed. Potentially Elen’s words about her imagination. It is a hope to reach the correct person with the right frame of mind. To have different opinions on politics and society.
The broader question is, does conflict art matter? And the reply is? Only if people take the time. Understanding the context is crucial in appreciating art, just like history. That art, whether we believe it or not, shapes the future, and the past is shaped by that idea of the art of the past.
The “White Town” series encapsulates the idea of emotions in Alyabyeva’s work in “Window”. Without words to describe the art of “Window”. Words to share their emotional implication the art at times fail to show the truth. To identify a person in the conflict art as a face. A person, an individual idea, the theme of resilience in text could not be made.
Reflection of conflict art with critical writing describes the art which shows how the past will make the future in a window.
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Artist Permission to use her art in essay