Olexander Wlasenko: As We Slept

The Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre is pleased to present an exhibition of drawings by Olexander Wlasenko: As We Slept that explores the portrayal of illusion as reality and juxtaposes it with images of reality as illusion. The artist creates large scale drawings of images appropriated from Soviet propaganda sources that portray Soviet citizens, posed and ever-ready to serve the communist state. He then contrasts this totalitarian mythology by interspersing intimate-scaled whitewashed wall drawings of famine victims in Soviet Ukraine 1932-33, a horrific occurrence hidden from view and expunged from human memory by the Soviets. According to Wlasenko, “…this project explores the tension between artifice and actuality, participating in the contemporary discourse around ethics, identity and the rehabilitation of historical memory.”

As a son of a survivor of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide 1932-33, Wlasenko places his faith “in the restorative power of art, a force which creates forums of discussion, puncturing the silence of sleep.”





Sponsored by:

North Winnipeg Credit Union

Carpathia Credit Union

Canada Council for the Arts