Ray Art

Digital photography artist from Ukraine exploring subconscious, spirituality and inner transformation.

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

https://t.co/CYf472HFMj
@axyxyart 🔥

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2023. “SAF” from Trigger globes series
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.

Collaboration between Mikhail Ray and Nadiya Petrovska

A small architectural form is a small building for decorative, auxiliary or other purposes, which is used to improve the aesthetic appearance of public places and urban objects, organize space and complement the composition of houses, buildings, and their complexes.
The construction must fit into the overall panoramic view of the area, organize the space, and carry an aesthetic load.

At the beginning of March, when Kherson fell into the hands of the “liberators”, who proclaimed the “Russian World” in it, the first thing they did was supplement the composition of the main administrative building of the city with such decorative buildings. It’s obvious, Russian World demands Russian SAFs. Until the very end of the occupation, in every such kiosk there was a Russian liberator with his weapon of liberation. If I had been a little more courageous or stupid, then, passing by, I would have handed money through the window with the words “One ticket. Adult” (to the theater of the absurd, a circus performance or a one way ticket, whichever resonates more to you).
Of course, these Small Architectural Forms stood here in order to protect what was happening in the nearby Large (Architectural Forms). The main one was the building of the Administrative Court, where during the occupation, rocket artillery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces visited the meeting of the occupation “administration”, making it timeless. In the first days after the liberation of the city, Kherson residents, who had both courage and stupidity, got a unique chance to look into the stopped heart of the “Russian World”. I looked in too.
The first thing that caught my eye was the pinpoint precision of the UAF. All the missiles landed in one specific part of the building. Among the many unremarkable offices covered with concrete dust, the two adjoining rooms on the ground floor at the end of the corridor attracted the most attention. In one of them, hand-drawn diagrams were pasted on the wall near the windows, where the liberator should be with a machine gun on an alarm signal, with “liberation” sectors and some kind of combat spells, the meaning of which was understandable only to military magicians. In the middle of the mystical secret room was a civilian “VODNIK”. This is not the name of a sanatorium for water transport workers, nor is it a medical device. This is a homemade appliance made from two plastic bottles of different calibers for recreational or medical, although in this case, perhaps, religious or combat use of narcotic plants. In the room opposite, which had once served as a public toilet, but was now a shamelessly filthy public toilet, feces lay everywhere and stank. Undoubtedly, the lack of water or a cleaner could only partially explain this magic. Fortunately, there was no one to ask about the reasons for the metamorphoses that had occurred in the room. Yes, it’s not necessary. The whole essence of the “Russian World” was here, in these two rooms of the Large Architectural Form, reliably guarded by the Small ones.

The paradox is that the world of our psyche is no better. For each traumatic memory or flaw, it sets up such a “kiosk” with a machine gunner who reliably protects it in all available ways: aggression, avoidance, devaluation, lethargy, manipulation or, in some cases, Ukrainization. The more such SAFs there are in it, the less chance there is for normal relationships with other people, personal fulfillment and a happy life. After the liberation of Kherson, the SAFs were eventually removed. I wish the same for you!

#gorbushkasnowglobes #mikhailrayart #triggerglobes #ukrainiancontemporaryart #contemporaryart #ukrainewarart #artistshelpukraine #artistssupportukraine

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

This December turns out to be rich in Exhibitions I take part in. If you are in #Brussels or #Berlin I invite you to join.

Ukrainian Art in EU. Childhood Reconstruction.
Till 14.12 10:00 to 17:00 Station Europe, Pl. du Luxembourg, Brussels
Hosted in the building of European Parliament by its Member Pina Picierno and number of humanitarian and civil rights organizations.
Organized by Vitaukr.Italia.
Curated by Giorgio Grasso.
Free admission.

Post Truth? Countering Disinformation Narratives
12, 13 & 14.12 16:00 to 21:00 in Kunstleben Kreuzberg art space, Gneisenaustrasse, 19, Berlin
Vernissage on 12.12 at 19:00. Closure on 14.12 at 19:00. Organized by Lernlabor.
Curated by Seila Fernandez Arconada.
Free admission.
Register for Guided tours

Knocking from the depths. Art banned in Russia
16 till 24.12 14:00 to 21:00 in ICEBERG/MiCT Gallery, Brunnenstrasse, 9, Berlin
First ever exhibition of AXYXY artists in EU.
Organized by axyxyart, https://t.co/J7YlWXuRzC & Eikevei Gallery.
Curated by Olga A. Dudygina and Vladimir Shalamov
Free admission.
Artworks available for purchase

#стуксодна #ахуху #mikhailrayart #artasadversary #posttruth #posttruthproject #ukrainianartineu #europeanparliament #vitaukr #childhoodreconstruction

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

Trigger globes series
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.

Collaboration between Mikhail Ray and Nadiya Petrovska (@Amor6664)

To date, there are already 10 artworks in the series, the work goes on. Each of them is ready to tell it’s own unique story, and as you may have already understood, they are not only about the war in Ukraine. If you were once a child (I reserve the right to disagree), and if you have a central nervous system (you may have an opinion here too), you will definitely find your early triggers. Then, perhaps, healing fresh wounds, we will notice and heal the scars of childhood - the primary reason and fuel for the war. After all, war is in a certain sense the same peace, only faster and more intense. War exposes what has been sleeping under the blanket of peace for many years. War, if we endow it with subjectivity, both destroys and creates.

And, of course, the standard copypaste about the series:

The gift that no one would want to receive.

It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would want to receive such a gift, but unfortunately, our fate and nervous system do just that and leave us no other choice. War is traumatic. It will end someday, but triggers - certain objects, sounds, and places - will periodically return us to the feelings and states that we experienced and are still experiencing. They settle on the bottom of our psyche like a heavy block of concrete and will lie there as long as they are connected to intense negative emotions and feelings. Until we have rethought the events that have happened and understood what has changed in our personality and values for the better. Until the traumatic memories fit into neat row of blocks in the foundation of the structure that we have not yet become. It is impossible to run away from triggers, they can and should be discharged, before inherited by children.

#gorbushkasnowglobes #mikhailrayart #triggerglobes #ukrainiancontemporaryart #contemporaryart #ukrainewarart #artistshelpukraine #artistssupportukraine

[Lernlabor @LernlaborBerlin]

#posttruthproject #Poland #opencall #residency #collaborativeresidency exploring #posttruth from different perspectives #disinformation #fakenews & how it could be countered by #criticalthinking, #medialiteracy & #artisticstrategies info https://t.co/1LwCzFZA8i
@Seila_Fdz #art

[Seila Fernández Arconada @Seila_Fdz]

#posttruthproject new current #opencall #artists based in #Germany! #opportunity for #collaborativeresidency about #posttruth and how #artists can engage with #missinformation and #fakenews ending in final #artexhibition All info, apply: https://t.co/mQUeuDfXXS @LernlaborBerlin

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2023. The Perfect Storm (prints 80 x 112 cm)
Created with Anna Vesna

“Life isn’t finding shelter in the storm. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

During my more than 20-year career at sea, I have been through storms and hurricanes many times. At times I was scared, especially the first one. However, fortunately, I never had a chance to really test the ship’s strength. At most I risked losing or damaging an expensive, but still insured, cargo. When I decided to end my career at sea, I thought I had left all my storms behind. But on February 24, 2022, I woke up and found my life barometer at the end of the scale. But this time I was not sailing a modern cargo ship, but a wooden boat without a map, radar or satellite navigation system.

When I decided to stay in Kherson to resist Russian occupation, I had no idea what kind of storm I would be thrown into. This time I risked my life, and it wasn’t even insured. There were situations when I was overcome by fears and doubts about the adequacy of the decisions I had made. After the fake referendum and the start of the evacuation, the most difficult period began - a test of faith. At some point, the clouds above me thickened so much that the light was no longer visible. First there was a worrying “knock” from Russian officials in my telegram. Then, communication with the outside world was lost, electricity followed soon, taking along my money, tap water, a refrigerator with food and room heating. The situation already seemed worse than grave.

And suddenly, Kherson was deoccupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces without a fight.

I’m unlikely to be able to find more precise or sufficient words to express what humanity has known for a long time. But I can apply my experience and my life to them, along with lives of all other people who were with me. Do not give up!

1. “It often takes the darkness of a storm to show us the light of God’s presence.” ~ Tony Evans
2. “The wise man in the storm prays God not for safety from danger but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within which endangers him[,] not the storm without.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. “God doesn’t author hardship but uses it to strengthen us for greater conquests. He never leads us into a storm that He doesn’t give us the power to overcome.” ~ John Bevere
4. “He knows when we go into the storm, He watches over us in the storm, and He can bring us out of the storm when His purposes have been fulfilled.” ~ Warren W. Wiersbe
5. “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~ Haruki Murakami
6. “Sometimes a storm in your life is what will
blow you to the place you are longing to be.” ~ Beth Moore
7. “Life can give you strength. Strength can come from facing the storms of life, from knowing loss, feeling sadness and heartache, from falling into the depths of grief. You must stand up in the storm. You must face the wind and the cold and the darkness. When the storm blows hard you must stand firm, for it is not trying to knock you down, it is really trying to teach you to be strong.” ~ Joseph M. Marshall III

#StandWithUkraine #ArtistsSupportUkraine #ukraineart #photomanipulation #lensbased #lensbasedart #lensbasedartist #lensbasedmedia #kunstlover #surreal42 #digitalcollage #collage_creatives #contemporarycollageart #digitalcollageartist #mikhailrayart

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2023. “Shelter” from Trigger globes series
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.

Collaboration between Mikhail Ray and Nadia Petrovska

This concrete shelters have been installed in Ukrainian front-line cities to protect the civil population from Russian bombs and artillery. We adopted this experience from Israel. Such products are called “Safeplace”. In Kherson, they can most often be found near shops or public transport stops. The largest and most reliable of them is probably the state border with EU countries. However, in many light years and kilometers from Ukraine, the war and the frontline Kherson, a peaceful citizen who needs to pay bills or share living space with loved ones has own “air raid alert” and own “shelters”. It can be food, alcohol or drugs, entertainment, work or caring for loved ones. Right now you hold one of the most effective shelters from anxiety in your hands. But, both in wartime and in peacetime, if war indeed may teach us something, anywhere in the world, shelter does not solve the problem, but only creates the illusion that you can continue to live with it.

#gorbushkasnowglobes #mikhailrayart #triggerglobes #ukrainiancontemporaryart #contemporaryart #ukrainewarart #artistshelpukraine #artistssupportukraine

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2023. “The Sand” from Trigger globes series
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.

Collaboration between Mikhail Ray and Nadia Petrovskaya (Gorbushka Snowglobes)

Our nervous system protects us in the same way that we protect the memory of the urban space against the destruction. Metaphorically, a traumatic event is sandbagged to prevent re-immersion in the horrific experience of the past. In real life, we will unconsciously avoid everything that reminds us of it. Over time, even the body changes its shape and becomes like a monument covered with bags.

The series statement:

The gift that no one would want to receive.

It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would want to receive such a gift, but unfortunately, our fate and nervous system do just that and leave us no other choice. War is traumatic. It will end someday, but triggers - certain objects, sounds, and places - will periodically return us to the feelings and states that we experienced and are still experiencing. They settle on the bottom of our psyche like a heavy block of concrete and will lie there as long as they are connected to intense negative emotions and feelings. Until we have rethought the events that have happened and understood what has changed in our personality and values for the better. Until the traumatic memories fit into neat row of blocks in the foundation of the structure that we have not yet become. It is impossible to run away from triggers, they can and should be discharged, before inherited by children.

#gorbushkasnowglobes #mikhailrayart #triggerglobes #ukrainiancontemporaryart #contemporaryart #ukrainewarart #artistshelpukraine #artistssupportukraine

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

Kherson Today (limited edition prints 103 х 100 cm)

Almost a year has passed since the «Russian World» has evacuated to the left bank of the Dnieper in order to terrorize the right. Kherson has already been pretty battered during this time. The air raid alerts sound here every 40-50 minutes. There is no point in running into basements and bomb shelters. You either have to live there or rely on God, luck, good karma, your option. The rackets of artillery duels is a common background noise here, similar to the rustling of leaves in the forest or the sea surf. Many buildings are damaged or destroyed.
There are less people on the streets, but more often encounters with foxes and owls, and mice in residential areas. A considerable part of local daily life is devoted to the fight against the latter.

The city has clearly aged, both figuratively and literally. Almost everyone who was capable of this left for a safer place; mainly those who sit on deep roots remained. My residence resembles a nursing home: only people over 50 sit in the courtyard. Those desperately struggling with an unacceptable reality (and their own liver) with the help of alcohol often flash by.

It seems that billboards asking Kherson residents “How Are You?” do not heal.

The few people who still meet on the streets often have emotional, loud and lengthy conversations with themselves or with someone else, but invisible, at least to me. Perhaps this is a cumulative effect and this is what victory over the liver and reality should look like. Perhaps most of them have had this superpower for quite a long time, but there are also those who acquired it after their liberation from the “Russian World”. After all, now the level of stress here almost corresponds to the level of “big city life.”

#StandWithUkraine #ArtistsSupportUkraine #ukraineart #photomanipulation #lensbased #lensbasedart #lensbasedartist #lensbasedmedia #kunstlover #surreal42 #digitalcollage #collage_creatives #contemporarycollageart #digitalcollageartist #mikhailrayart

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2023. “Porcupine” from Trigger globes series
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.

Collaboration between Mikhail Ray and Nadia Petrovskaya (@Amor6664)

The gift that no one would want to receive.

It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would want to receive such a gift, but unfortunately, our fate and nervous system do just that and leave us no other choice. War is traumatic. It will end someday, but triggers - certain objects, sounds, and places - will periodically return us to the feelings and states that we experienced and are still experiencing. They settle on the bottom of our psyche like a heavy block of concrete and will lie there as long as they are connected to intense negative emotions and feelings. Until we have rethought the events that have happened and understood what has changed in our personality and values for the better. Until the traumatic memories fit into neat row of blocks in the foundation of the structure that we have not yet become. It is impossible to run away from triggers, they can and should be discharged, before inherited by children.

#gorbushkasnowglobes #mikhailrayart #triggerglobes #ukrainiancontemporaryart #contemporaryart #ukrainewarart #artistshelpukraine #artistssupportukraine

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2016/2023. Pearl by the Sea (prints 120 x 120 cm)

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! A year has already passed since my last letter, which means it’s your birthday again. I didn't expect you to make it. This is definitely a success! Congratulations!
In a recent portion of your regular verbal-pulp porn for the masses, you stated that Odesa is a Russian city and slightly Jewish. Just very slightly Jewish. Since I have been living here for some time, I have to inform you that your sources are failing again. I understand you, Odesa is very beautiful and cozy, you really want it. But you already have Kyiv in three days, why do you need another anecdote? Odesa, undoubtedly, has developed an identity associated with the empire and with communism, but Odesa residents, although the majority speak Russian, do not strive to enter your mental space. Moreover, they don’t consider you Russian either. There are viruses, bacteria and other parasites in nature that to some extent control the behavior of the host. The most famous example is the rabies virus. Or maybe in your glorious 90s you even watched the popular film “The Thing”, where group of polar scientists dug up some kind of alien life, which, copying their appearance, infected and absorbed people and animals into a single uniform faceless mass. Russia today is like the Pole, but you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, is definitely not a polar scientist.

#StandWithUkraine #ArtistsSupportUkraine #ukraineart #photomanipulation #lensbased #lensbasedart #lensbasedartist #lensbasedmedia #kunstlover #surreal42 #digitalcollage #collage_creatives #contemporarycollageart #digitalcollageartist #mikhailrayart

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2023. “Island” from Trigger globes series
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.

Collaboration between Mikhail Ray and Nadia Petrovskaya (@Amor6664)

The gift that no one would want to receive.

It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would want to receive such a gift, but unfortunately, our fate and nervous system do just that and leave us no other choice. War is traumatic. It will end someday, but triggers - certain objects, sounds, and places - will periodically return us to the feelings and states that we experienced and are still experiencing. They settle on the bottom of our psyche like a heavy block of concrete and will lie there as long as they are connected to intense negative emotions and feelings. Until we have rethought the events that have happened and understood what has changed in our personality and values for the better. Until the traumatic memories fit into neat row of blocks in the foundation of the structure that we have not yet become. It is impossible to run away from triggers, they can and should be discharged, before inherited by children.

#gorbushkasnowglobes #mikhailrayart #triggerglobes #ukrainiancontemporaryart #contemporaryart #ukrainewarart #artistshelpukraine #artistssupportukraine

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

2023. “Mines” from Trigger globes series
Concrete, glass, plastic, acrylic, liquid.

Collaboration between Mikhail Ray and Nadezhda Petrovskaya (@Amor6664)

The gift that no one would want to receive.

It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would want to receive such a gift, but unfortunately, our fate and nervous system do just that and leave us no other choice. War is traumatic. It will end someday, but triggers - certain objects, sounds, and places - will periodically return us to the feelings and states that we experienced and are still experiencing. They settle on the bottom of our psyche like a heavy block of concrete and will lie there as long as they are connected to intense negative emotions and feelings. Until we have rethought the events that have happened and understood what has changed in our personality and values for the better. Until the traumatic memories fit into neat row of blocks in the foundation of the structure that we have not yet become. It is impossible to run away from triggers, they can and should be discharged, before inherited by children.

#gorbushkasnowglobes #mikhailrayart #triggerglobes #ukrainiancontemporaryart #contemporaryart #ukrainewarart #artistshelpukraine #artistssupportukraine

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

«The Storyteller. War Diary» got Honorable Mention and Jury Top 5 at 20th Anniversary International Photography Awards

#IPhotoAwards #InternationalPhotographyAwards #IPADeeperPerspective #mikhailrayart #digitalcollage

[Beautiful Bizarre Magazine @BeautifulBzarre]

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW // @MikhailRayArt : Art Formed From War

>> https://t.co/ol1kyrEZIJ

#beautifulbizarre

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

@BeautifulBzarre 🔥🔥🔥

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

The Warrior (prints 93x93 cm)

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times”.

This was said by Plato. If this statement is still relevant today, then good times will come when enough strong people are born in the world. But strong people are not born, they are made.

Are you missing good times?

#StandWithUkraine #ArtistsSupportUkraine #ukraineart #photomanipulation #lensbased #lensbasedart #lensbasedartist #lensbasedmedia #kunstlover #surreal42 #digitalcollage #collage_creatives #contemporarycollageart #digitalcollageartist #mikhailrayart

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

Russian Language (prints 112 x 168 cm)
Digital photo collage. Bear skull, burnt car in Kherson, burnt shopping mall "Factory" in Kherson, Russian language and a well-smoked middle-aged man in Kherson.

Once upon a time, a lonely, longing, and narcissistic Russian genius came up with the idea that the Russian language is a good weapon. After all, "all means are good in war." "Russia ends where the Russian language ends," or maybe even "it never ends!" ... And indeed, like Soviet tanks, planes, guns, and machine guns, language also shoots and does it quite well. Mainly, of course, at those who do not know another language.

In a way, language is an operating system or a service. Without a rich selection of fresh and diverse content, it is of little use. Especially without the truth. Switching to another is undoubtedly more difficult than switching from Android to iOS, as well as developing a new service to their level. And this needs to be taken into account.

On the battlefield, the equipment on both sides is still predominantly the same. The insignia that are applied to it are reminiscent of dialects. There are pros and cons to this. This is a given, it was inherited by us not of our own free will. There was no urgent need to invest resources in the development of our defense industry, but we became dependent and lagged behind those who developed it. Now it is much more difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, but it is easier to use for your own purposes, if you take it away. After all, it is not important what you shoot with, but with whom, at whom and for what.

Why sew yellow triangles to clothes? If in Europe it is so important for you to understand who is standing in front of you, Ukrainian or Russian, you may just ask about it, as English or Spanish speakers do. Of course, if you are not afraid.

The language we speak and think is part of our personality. But the fact that we put on a vyshyvanka and Ukrainian language when we go out, and take it off when we come home, our inner nature does not change in any way. The “Russian World” feels great in both. If it is not Mariupol or Berdyansk, there is no feat in this, we do not bring victory any closer, but rather fuel anti-Ukrainian speculation in the United States and the European Union. This encouraged falsehood is felt and remembered very well, and, moreover, does not help in any way to understand where friend and foe are.

#StandWithUkraine #ArtistsSupportUkraine #ukraineart #photomanipulation #lensbased #lensbasedart #lensbasedartist #lensbasedmedia #kunstlover #surreal42 #digitalcollage #collage_creatives #contemporarycollageart #digitalcollageartist #mikhailrayart

[Ray Art @MikhailRayArt]

Honorable Mention at 2023 International Photo Awards Deeper Perspective (in Conflict)🔥

https://t.co/kr9OhJABXV