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Ukraine

show planned for spring of 2025

I will be hosting a show at the Shevchenko Museum (1604 Bloor St. West in Toronto) for spring of 2025.

I plan to have twelve paintings that are exact replicas of Ukrainian embroidery patterns, like the one featured above.

As you enter the gallery, twelve paintings will be equally spaced apart on either side of the gallery (the walls left and right when entering). On the far wall, in a spot that naturally serves as a place for the centerpiece, I will be hanging a single painting (the thirteenth) that will be a composite of all of the twelve designs. There will also be video running in the corner of the room that will be playing a loop of the programming/animation/audio work described below.

The process used to develop the composite thirteenth work begins with what you see in the video below, which is a replay of the process of creation. I wrote software (using Processing) to develop this animation and I am going to be producing animations like this for the remaining eleven paintings. I will also be adding sound using material from the Ukrainian Art Song Project. This beautiful organization, based in Toronto, Ontario, has curated a collection of ‘art songs’ – mini opera pieces from the early nineteenth to mid twentieth century, composed and performed by Ukrainian artists.

Each of the songs featured on their releases are also available as MIDI files and it is these files that I will be using to match with the designs – and that’s the fun part – systems of translation.

I aim to develop systems relating the music to the designs, their encoded meanings, and the creative process used in developing them – the ancient codes. I definitely felt the affect of methodically drawing out these designs – the rhythm of it had an affect – calming for sure. I plan to have apps running on this website under each design, replaying it. Until that is built, there will be video replays of the animation.

I also would also like to see what interesting things can be done with the raw data of the images/animations, ie. what square was filled in, when, and with what colour. I am particularly interested in complex systems and cybernetics but I am not a licensed scientitian..

If you feel like supporting this project there are very good prints available. And there are of course, the paintings themselves.

I am not saying a portion of all proceeds will go to Ukraine. Instead what I am going to do is send a fixed amount – approx. $1500-$2000. I will provide proof as well.

The core of this project is software that is used to display the creative content of artistic material – in this case the Ukrainian embroidery designs. Many of the approaches I apply now are generally pretty simple. In this case, it is the playback of the filling in of the squares. But there is something to be seen in it – an aspect of the creative process. I want to combine this with the ancient codes somehow too – learning them and revealing an aspect of their presence.

I have started researching what the symbols mean. I am sending out regular updates via my newsletter and of course I will be adding new materials here as I learn more.

Go to my online store for prints and paintings.

Click on each of the images below to go to their respective web pages which includes information and commentary, the running software (coming soon), videos of the animation with sound, and images.

Ukraine 1

Ukraine 2