The Leaving of Ukraine Through Bloodlands 2015

Using a variety of clay techniques, both contemporary and traditional, ceramic artist, Luda Korczynskyj weaves the story of her family’s emigration to Fremantle in 1949 from war – torn Europe.  Though the loss of cultural heritage was immense, this exhibition is a celebration of how art survives and creative values are never truly lost

A VILLAGE POTTER

Mikola, my great, grandfather was a village potter of extraordinary skill and tenacity.  He made functional ware in the little pottery hamlet of Shatrashchi, in North Eastern Ukraine.  This village was situated on clay pits.  A family member recalling his skill, said that people came from miles around to the market days, just to buy his pots.  Apparently they had a special ‘ring’ to them.

 He was an illegitimate child, who overcame that adversity and later the vile suppression of the communist regime.

He refused to join the Stalinist collective and felt so attached to his village and pottery that when the Bolsheviks exiled his whole family to another nearby town he went missing and everyone thought he was lost forever.

Later he was discovered sleeping on the pottery door step in protest.

 He died at the ripe old age of 78.  By this time he had lost his sight; it is said from peering into the white light of the kilns.

This piece is a memorial to the Tragedy of MH17 – which occurred on the 17th of July 2014, when the Eastern Ukrainian/Russian separatists shot down that aeroplane on route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It crashed over Eastern Ukraine in the Donetsk region. The black leaves represent people killed and the 3 small red ones on the bottom right – the 3 Australian children from Perth. This artist has relatives who live near the crash site but has lost contact with them as it remains a ‘war zone’. Please help the people in Ukraine in any way you can big or small.