Spotless Hearts and Patient Eyes

Works by Kateryna Aliinyk from 2021/22 depict soil profiles of the type familiar from educational diagrams. We recognize the sequence: a foundation of bedrock, overlaid by layers of weathered and deposited material, covered by what we call topsoil. From this fertile layer, cultivated plants push skyward, neatly planted in furrows, their roots firmly anchored in the earth. In earlier paintings, Aliinyk positioned human bones, mines, shell fragments and grenades among roots and green stalks along this same line, half-buried between sky and soil. Aliinyk, who is from Luhansk and continues to live in Ukraine, grappled with war and death in her art. Her paintings reflect a mental retreat into the embrace of nature – a response undoubtedly driven by the urge to persist in the face of ongoing war and devastation.
Inspired by the diverse specimens of the Zoological Collection in Halle, new paintings have been created: birds in a family tree, their watchful eyes upon us; a graceful dove amidst the undergrowth of a tree canopy; and the glint of tiny mice’s eyes among the roots. A cascade of insects, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, woodlice and worms seems to spill from a melting moon. Two birds watch from the margins. Perhaps the moon is a piece of golden amber – both emblematic of the endless time that has long since passed before us. Is nature indifferent to war and death?

On loan from the artist
With many thanks to Edit Molnár and Marcel Schwierin