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"How can something beautiful provide evidence of the atrocious? Lesia MARUSHAK, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, asked herself how she could tell the story of the 1932-33 genocide-famine in Soviet Ukraine beyond an explicit documentary approach. Derived from the Ukrainian words for hunger (holod) and extermination (mor), the event, as well the Soviet Union’s involvement, has been chronicled in various lights—wavering dramatically between the bad luck of famine, incompetence in leadership, and outright genocide by way of a complex series of roadblocks placed in front a very specific demographic. Are photojournalists the only ones to tell these stories? What modes of storytelling can bridge the complexity of such histories?
'The Holodomor,' she writes, 'was political and intentional; a state-sponsored assault on a single ethnic group […] whose national consciousness stood in the way of the new order.' This is the history she chooses to accept based on such overwhelming evidence. Scholar and curator Alison Nordström, who differentiates between history, memory and 'what happened', wrote the essay 'From Ashes', bound as an inset within the book. She describes the artist’s work as 'a photographic response to a particular historical event, but it is also an evocation of the ways such an event may be known, as it lingers and resonates in the artist and others, long after, and far from the site of, its occurrence.' The artist book 'Transfiguration' by Lesia MARUSCHAK, constructed by hand throughout 2018, and commercially-produced 'Maria', take both a multi-layered approach to constructing a memorial to the millions who died under Stalin’s policy of artificial starvation. Through the influence of her friend, photographer/filmmaker Peter LINDBERGH, she found a unique way to engage in issues relevant to contemporary society while challenging current photographic dialogues. If she look back on her life, she see that she have been issues-driven all along and had the incredible opportunity to make a difference working through various channels. 'I became intrigued with how we, as individuals, societies and governments erase memories, people and events.' These considerations are essential to Project 'Maria'. Additionally, with fewer than 30 copies of Transfiguration, the reach is small. 'Maria', by contrast, is designed in collaboration with Elias ZHEKALOV, available for purchase.
The project began with the recollection of family photo albums, as well as an unexpected discovery. 'I tripped upon a box of my mother-in-law’s photographs where people had been cut out or torn off. She was a survivor of Stalin’s Soviet Ukraine where the elite leadership of the Soviet Communist Party approved policies to eliminate the individual and national identity of the Ukrainian people. Her parents were taken away by the state secret police never to be seen again—erased; she and many like here were orphaned.' Rather than relying entirely upon information already-discoverable online, Lesia MARUSCHAK wanted to tap into personal stories that emerged from a broader community, sher put out a call on Facebook asking for photographs and received an unexpected response—the family picture of Maria and her parents taken in Ukraine. This photo anchored the project with Maria F. becoming the heroine of the story. In an 80th-anniversary film project Maria recalled 'her sister Ksenya sleeping cold and dead in the bed beside her; her father imprisoned and beaten, returning home only to die; her mother falling asleep just before supper, never to wake.' Maria miraculously survived and her family entrusted Maruschak with the creative freedom to reinterpret her portrait.
Content
The book 'Transfiguration' by Lesia MARUSCHAK opens with a historically-processed portrait of Maria. The half-title page is embossed, words pressed into paper without bearing the visual weight of ink. Symbolic details continue to unfold. The soulful face opens and closes the book, it has been transformed through surface painting and hand-processing. The book itself is eloquently layered with contributed essays, evocative poetry, and three of MARUSCHAK’s photographic series. 'Maria' is limited to 200 copies, each numbered and autographed by hand on a sticker at the end of the book." (this description is based and slightly adapted on a text by Amy Parish, in: lensculture, 2020)