Shelter wrong side out

In the summer the artists took part in a Kaniv art residency organized by the Kniazha Hora (“Princely Hill”) complex. The project “Shelter” (“Ukryttia”), the final stage of this event, is a series of pictures and an art book presented at the forum ART-Kyiv Contemporary held in early October at Mystetsky Arsenal.

The artworks of Budnikov and Ralko are stirring up a storm of emotions – from rapture to fury. The Budnikov-painted nuclear blasts fill the canvas’s whole space, as if they wipe off humankind, its anxieties and disputes. The bright pink, which Ralko often uses, is the color of both the sunset and, to some extent, danger. “Anxiety has exhausted us so much that we are eager to hide for some time not only from war, but also from peace which untiringly keeps our war going. But where is danger coming from? Peace has become hostile because the never-ending threat of a big war has been testing it for too long,” Budnikov and Ralko say in their own introductory word to the project.

What gave an impetus to making these artworks were stenciled notices “Shelter” on building walls, which show the way to bomb shelters. “These notices refer us to some kind of Soviet practices, such as civil defense exercises. It occurred to us that there’s no sense to look for a shelter in the world. There are no guarantees of security. So, it is time to mature and change something in our perception of this dangerous but beautiful world,” Ralko notes, speaking about the project’s history.

The project “Shelter” might well be called merciless, for the artists point to human weaknesses with tough straightforwardness. At the same time, the project implies that whoever lacks the sting is defenseless, for they express themselves straightforwardly and do not use sly words as a cover. Candor becomes a weapon, which deprives one of a shelter and an ability to ignore the coming disastrous explosion. “This project is very much about today,” contemporary art critic and curator Kostiantyn Doroshenko says. “When artists began to create ‘Shelter,’ Ukraine had been in a state of war and poignant expectations for a year. But this project is not confined to the Ukrainian context only – it is about the entire world, about the people who cannot or are trying not to notice certain things. It is about the loss of belief in that some kind of shelter is possible. Humans are perhaps the only biological species that is eliminating itself. So, humans must understand: if they destroy themselves, the beauty of the planet and nature will not vanish. It depends on us whether we will remain behind here and be able to behold one another, the world, nature, and art. Otherwise, everything may end up with a global catharsis, a nuclear blast that will be beautiful from the angle of existence but will wipe us out.”

The artists suggest looking for rescue in a trap. For Budnikov and Ralko, the workplace Kaniv became a secluded laboratory and a shelter of sorts. “Working there, you seem to have been caught in the trap of a shelter, where being able to speak in silence looks like staying in an uneasy reality. Therefore, you have the only way out: to try to slide back, deep inside, into the trap of the beginning and inactivity, where uncertainty has not yet turned into embarrassment and indifference but, on the contrary, means a potential action and an ability to differentiate, recognize, and identify things,” Budnikov and Ralko explain in their introductory word.

Looking for a shelter and safety, we hide the human, honest, and sincere deep inside us so that nobody can guess about and take advantage of our sensitivity. But it is perhaps time to set aside arrogance and draw our “weaknesses” from the depths of our consciousness. There is no shelter in any case. And only humanness can save us from a catastrophe and disappearance – if not physical then mental.