Irpin Ukraine: Please Don’t Forget Us

A 60-foot-long photograph of a civilian car cemetery in Ukraine

I recently visited Ukraine and I would love you to see the installation of one of several works I will be making from my visit. Please come on this Saturday to see the 60-foot-long photograph of the car cemetery in Irpin, full of the bullet and shrapnel-ridden cars destroyed as residences fled the city.

This is the first of two public art installations I’ve planned. The second will be a large walk-in cyclorama of a bombed apartment block in Borodyanka.

On March 6th 2022, Russians shelled the road that hundreds of civilians were using to escape the fighting in Irpin. Men, women and children were killed while fleeing in an attack that was called a likely war crime by the Human Rights Watch. Parts of the city were occupied by Russian forces until they were forced out at the end of that March. They left behind over 250 civilians dead, a quarter of the 62,000 residents homeless, and 70% of infrastructure damaged. 

This is a vulnerable moment for Ukraine, with the stopgap spending bill set to expire on November 17th, and support for aid waning among Republicans in Congress.

This installation is up-close and visceral. It serves a witness to just some of the horror and destruction Ukraine has experienced, a memorial in life-sized detail.  It was stitched together from over 30 high-resolution images and can be viewed in high resolution at: pwbuehler.prodibi.com/a/jvlqx2okwlexyzv