Multimedia installation with video
component, by Mary Bluestocking, March 19th, 2022. Italy.
Mary Bluestocking is a Latvian-American contemporary artist who is currently producing multi- media work focused on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
Bluestocking’s first major work as part of her For Ukraine project, is the large-scale installation “дети II” / “Deti II” (Russian for “Children II”), which is a recreation of the writing on the ground at theater/shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine which was shelled by the Russians on March 16th. Even now, hundreds are believed to still be trapped. The “Deti II” installation by Bluestocking included a drone video recording. A short-version of the video was posted on social media and is meant to serve, currently, as a vigil to the victims of Russia’s attack on the theater. The Deti series is ultimately meant as a narrative body, in direct opposition to the Russian administration’s own narrative of being “rescuers” of the Ukrainian people from “genocidal fascists”. The series pinpoints and emphasizes the critical detail of the Mariupol theater scene which makes it plain to see that Putin and his administration are guilty of war crimes. The series seeks to raise awareness among those confused by the mixed messaging, censorship and disinformation in the media and it calls for acknowledgement that Putin and his administration are guilty of war crimes. “Dety II” was conceived, and executed at Art Aia – Creatives In Residence – an art center in the Comune of Sesto al Reghena in the North-Eastern Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, where Bluestocking is currently doing an art residency until March 27th.
Since the publication of “Dety II” on instagram, Facebook and Youtube on March 19th, “dety” pieces by other artists, featuring the word in Cyrrilic, writ large on the ground have begun to appear around the world, such as a “dety” piece at the square of the Czech National Theatre in Prague on March 22nd by a number of people including Oldřich Morys, and another “dety” piece which appeared on March 24th, at the Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw by the Dramatyczny Kolektyw . The nature of the connection between these later, “dety” – installations and Bluestocking’s is yet unknown.
More about Mary Bluestocking:
Bluestocking holds a bachelor of fine art in visual art from the State University of New York, Purchase College, School of Visual Arts, USA and a master of arts in international migration and ethnic relations from Malmö, University, Sweden. She has observed five Ukrainian elections as an international
observer in the regions of Kyiv, Cherkasy, Dnipro and Khmelnytskyi.
Instagram: @marybluestocking
ART AIA - CREATIVES IN RESIDENCE 