Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
UNWLA 100
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 201 3 WWW. UNWLA.ORG 19 Did you come up with the concept for the Memorial — “Field of Wheat” — right away, or did you go through different possibil i- ties before finally deciding on this partic u- lar design? I had this idea even before the compet i- tion was announced. I starte d to think about h ow one would convey something about the Holodomor to a largely Western audience. As I have said to many people , for the average Amer i- can wheat is an easy association with Ukraine. We all studie d about Ukraine being the bread ba s- ket of Eu rope in the early twentieth century. I wanted to reinforce what little knowledge the a v- erage viewer had as well as to convey the artific i- a l ity of the Famine — its deliberateness . The latter is conveyed in the bronze bas - relief sculpture through the transiti on of wheat from high relief to negative relief across 30 feet. In other words, starting with a six foot - tall by 30 foot - long plane, at the left edge, the wheat will project out of that plane 8 inche s and across 30 feet , at the right end , it will be recess ed into that plane an equal amount. This does not express a simple disa p- pearance of wheat becau se of some natural event. T he negative space conveys the deliberateness and artificiality of the Famine. I like the fact that the wheat is rendered very realistically while its treatment from positive to negative relief is an abstract concept — so that the M emorial functions on a few different levels. It’s certainly a very striking design and I’m sure it will look even more striking when seen in real life . Yes, t he rend ering did not give it justice. T hat is the limit ation of the rendering program , I must say. However, the foundry has already star t- ed work on the sculpture. The first step was to photograph real wheat , which I collected near Winnipeg, Canada , last summer from an uncle of mine. The foundry has the equipment to phot o- graph the wheat and then manipulate it in a dig i- tal modeling program to create the desired effect. Theoretically, the right half of the sculpture is just the m irror image of the le ft half. This is somewhat experimental work, but t he foun dry felt that they could do it. For me, it was a good way to go b e- cause initially I thought that I would have to hire a sculptor to produce a scale model of the scul p- ture. Yet using the digital model ing program eli m- inated that step altogether , and the first images which I received from the found ry are very, very encouraging. Collecting the wheat: Larysa Kurylas with her uncle Walter Kaminskyj near Winnipeg, Canada Of course, the work on the Memorial i n- cluded designing not only the sculpture but also the space of the triangular plaza where the sculpture will be located. Could you talk a little bit about the challenges and constraints with which you had to wo rk in designing that space? The tri angular geometry of the site in and of itself is a challenge. It happens a lot in Was h- ington with the diagonal avenues cutting through the rectilinear street network. One thing that struck me at the very start was the uncomfortable relationship of two restaurants that have sidewalk seating across the street from the Holodomo r M emorial site . T hat inspired me to think of a sculpture that had the potential of screening out the sidewalk seating , and that is why the bas - relief sculpture took on a wall - like q uality. After my design project was approved at the conceptual level by the Commission of Fine A rts , all kinds of modifications were discussed for another year or so. The biggest area of focus from all the reviewing agencies was what this sculpture would l ook like from the reverse side — that is, from the side which actually faces those sidewalk cafes . Reviewers expressed concern about the p e- destrian experience along that street . They felt
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
