This piece explores the relationship among memory, nostalgia, and heritage through a collage of scenes from my personal life, assembled into a cohesive landscape. The imagery is drawn from my time spent in my home village in Ukraine with my grandparents, centered around the daily act of grazing cattle in our community. This responsibility—caring not only for our own cattle but for the whole village’s—was an experience rooted in trust, labor, and connection to the land.
Coming from a long line of farmers, the act of walking open fields surrounded only by wind and nature remains one of my most peaceful memories. This work captures that serenity while also acknowledging its distance. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has transformed these once-familiar moments into symbols of a tranquility that feels increasingly unreachable.
By placing myself in the scene, looking away from the viewer and toward a direction beyond the frame, I express a sense of longing—both for home and for a time of safety and stillness that now exists mostly in memory. Through this piece, I reflect on what it means to hold onto heritage when the world that shaped it has irrevocably changed.
