Julia Suptel

The Garden of Loss and Triumph

NDSM Fuse, NDSM-Plein 29, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

My textile artwork is taking part in a group exhibition in Amsterdam. The venue is organized by ArtAviso and is going to take place from 1st to 18th of September. Artwork will be available for purchase, all profits will be donated to Ukrainian charities. More info on the project

I was 7 months pregnant when the war in my homeland Ukraine broke out. Ongoing news about losses among civilians broke my heart every day. Everyday I opened the news feed and saw a new number of victims, dead and wounded. Here’s the point I’ve changed my initial concept for the project and decided to devote my piece to the children of Ukraine who were killed since February 2022 by Russian army. It depicts a sunflower - one of the traditional Ukrainian plants and export resources. Every cross is a life of a child taken away by war.

I started when the number of deaths was already quiet big and then continued adding stitches, crying over the victims of shelling of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa and many more Ukrainian cities. I knew that I will be adding more every single day but never made a stitch in advance, hoping that I will actually have to add no more. It felt weird and painful to breastfeed my baby and add a stitch for every child killed, infants as well.

I’m sending out this piece of artwork unfinished because the war is still on and Russians continue killing Ukrainians and destroy our homes and land. By now 362 children were killed, about thrice as much injured and made handicapped, a few millions had to leave their homes and several hundred thousands have no home to go back to, no kindergarten, school or sports club to go to if they are back. This what Russian politicians were calling “military aims” and “nazis”.

22.05 288

15.06 313 

16.06 318

 17.06 322 

18.06 323 

26.06 339 

28.06 341 

4.07 345 

10.07 347 

12.07 349 

14.07 351 

26.07 358 

7.08 361 

8.08 362