Artist Piers Secunda creates paintings from ashes of Ukrainian buildings bombed by Russia

British artist Piers Secunda is using his art to shed light on Russia's destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage and the kidnapping of Ukrainian children. Titled Nature Morte: The Extermination of Ukraine, this exhibition is currently on display at London's Fitzrovia Gallery. The exhibition is the result of a self-funded, three-year research project where Secunda traveled to Ukraine and collected soot from a government building bombed in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine. The soot was then used to create charcoal ink-on-paper works for this exhibition.

The exhibition consists of 21 charcoal paintings, which depict traditional Ukrainian ingredients and foods such as Borshch and pampushky bread. These paintings are arranged in three pyramids and one vertical display, organized by ingredients, prepared foods, and breads. Each painting features a QR code that links to an individual named by the Ukrainian government as complicit in the crimes named in the painting's title. In total, 21 people are mentioned.

Secunda worked with Vladyslav Havrylov, a Ukrainian church historian, to gather information about the accused individuals. The research document for each individual reads like a wanted poster, detailing their alleged crimes. For example, Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church is linked to a painting of bread and is accused of promoting actions that weaken Ukraine and sanctifying the invasion of Ukraine as a 'Holy War'.

The exhibition also features a large-scale map showing 6,374 recorded points of damage to cultural sites across Ukraine, and a 40-minute film documenting Secunda's research. Secunda's goal with this project was to understand how Russia was disassembling Ukraine's culture and to draw attention to the Russian government officials and church leadership involved in the crimes against Ukrainian children.