This contemporary artwork is made of Lenin's found soviet-era oil portrait.
For many Ukrainians who, like me, share Western values, Lenin is a dictator and murderer who initiated an occupation of my country in 1917-1921. From that time until 1991, Ukraine wasn't free.
Even now, like numerous old soviet-era propagandistic images of Lenin, the ghost of a monster country called the USSR is still here. Lenin's successor from the Kremlin tries to destroy an independent Ukraine and pull it into Moscow's deadly hug.
In my art project, I try to overcome my country's traumatic historical experience by transforming the USSR's sinister shards into something funny and not scary. I try to show that we can defeat even the strongest evil. But even in a case of a win, we must be alert to prevent the enemy from rising again.
