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  • Writer: Beyond the Canvas
    Beyond the Canvas
  • Feb 26, 2022
  • 2 min read

Updated: Apr 20, 2022

My dear Ukrainian friend Halyna makes veggie borsch for me. She also makes kapusta (red cabbage), Olivier (Russian) salad and blinis, which we eat with smoked salmon and lashings of smetana (sour cream). She feeds me her food in the same way she does everything: with generosity and pride. Every time she cooks is a bit special because that's when she talks about her childhood memories, her late parents and their life on a farm in what was then the USSR.


No cooking today, she had been up all night listening to the news. It was the first time in the 25 years that I have known her that she looked tired, her eyes sunken and red. We sat in the sun and we talked for over an hour. I let her talk, there wasn't much I could or wanted to say. Her 62 year old brother Vasha is a reservist, he lives in Lviv. We video-called him and he told us he's ready to fight and die if that's his fate, but that no one is going to take away their freedom. I just sat there and listened, nodding and trying to muster a sympathetic smile as if it made any difference to anyone. The man is 62 and he's ready to die to defend his country. These people are made of different stuff.


I love this picture, I often find food paintings intimate and joyful. They speak to our connectedness to our roots, they are a solid expression of our identity. Oleg Tistol painted something simple yet meaningful with genuine enthusiasm and vibrant colours. I get lost in those swirls as I think of the humbling courage of the Ukrainian people.


Oleg Tistol

Borsch, 2011


 
 
 
  • Writer: Beyond the Canvas
    Beyond the Canvas
  • Feb 24, 2022
  • 1 min read

There are moments in life when our fear is such that we scramble for ways of taming it, in the hope that this crippling fear will somehow dissolve. And when we feel at our most powerless, all sorts of coping mechanisms kick in as we go down unexplored avenues trying to believe we can do something, anything, This is one of those moments.


Me, I turn to art, like I always do. So today I'd like to showcase the work of Marina Skugareva, born in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1962. I don't know much about her or her creative practice, but I liked the sophistication and complexity of this still life, where I see echoes of my beloved Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. So I thought I would show my support to Marina and all the Ukrainian people. Because that is literally all I can do.



Marina Skugareva

Still Life, 2008

 
 
 
  • Writer: Beyond the Canvas
    Beyond the Canvas
  • Feb 14, 2022
  • 2 min read

Today Instagram is aflood with red hearts, declarations of eternal love, schmaltzy quotes and unmissable promotions. And while swathes of people around the globe enthusiastically celebrate romance, it would appear that the origins of Valentine's Day are rooted in unspeakably gruesome rituals performed by the ancient Romans.


So here I am jumping on the bandwagon with this Banksy piece, which first appeared on a wall next to Prince of Albert pub in Brighton, the LGBTQ capital of the United Kingdom. Two policemen lock lips in a passionate embrace, and I can't help but think that this image would have been far more relevant and provocative if it had popped up somewhere in the less open-minded North East of the country. Anyway, I digress.


What I really wanted to talk about has nought to do with love (sorry) and everything to do with coppers. Last week, Cressida Dick, the former Commissioner of London's Met Police resigned over a string of scandals culminating in a serving officer murdering a young woman (see my post). To make things worse, a recent report uncovered a widespread culture of institutional racism, misogyny, bullying, corruption and sex harassment. The commissioner's position had become untenable, she simply had to go.


However, I find myself thinking that Dick, who happens to be an out gay woman, may in some way have been a victim of said culture because of her gender and, possibly, her sexual orientation. Despite her responsibilities, it's hard to see how the first female leader of the UK's largest police service could have ever succeeded in bringing real change to a male-dominated environment that is so evidently tainted with toxic masculinity.


Banksy

Kissing Coppers, 2004


 
 
 

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