Artists Against War: The Visual Language of War. An Interview with Katerina Savchuk

Svidomi in collaboration with Artists Against War, an online gallery of posters created to support Ukraine after the Russian full-scale invasion, tell the stories of the artists who help Ukraine by means of art. Read an interview with the illustrator Kateryna Savchuk in the carousel.

— What did you do before February 24?

I did illustration, mainly for web design and application interface. I also had some experience in illustrating a children's book. I graduated from the Faculty of Monumental Art, and at the same time I created such works as collages. I even had my own small workshop.

— Can you describe your day of February 24?

— I wasn't ready for it: particularly, I didn't read the news, and I didn’t believe that a full-scale war could begin. I packed my go-bag when I had already heard the explosions. We left Kyiv on February 25. We gathered all our friends — there were eight of us in the car, as well as birds and cats. At that time, I didn’t think at all about taking my colours or a sketchbook with me, but I took my tablet and my laptop.When we arrived at my parents’ place in Novohrad-Volynskyi, my morale was terribly low. The only thing that distracted me was drawing on the tablet.

We lived in a constant "groundhog day" — we woke up, ate our food, read the news, went to the bomb shelter — all the days were the same, and the only thing that helped to feel productive was drawing.

— How has the full-scale war affected your work?

— When I was in Novohrad, I could see how active the volunteer movement was in Kyiv. It was active in Novohrad as well, and I wanted to do something, but there were not so many options where I could be useful. Once I came to a place where people were weaving camouflage nets. There were already many people there, and they told me to come next time. Then I was volunteering at the information centre, answering calls from displaced people or people who wanted to help them. I worked there every other day, i.e. I wasn’t busy all the time. When Artists Against War approached me, I was happy to have an opportunity to create something visual — to keep that thread between the past and the present, and still be useful and relevant. After that, thanks to this project, some musicians started writing to me with a request to use my illustrations for track covers; some people from the Kyiv Independent media wrote to me saying that they wanted me to draw an illustration for them.

— So, before February 24 you were drawing things that people ordered from you, and after that — on a volunteer basis?

— Yes, I don't remember any active commercial projects after February 24. The thing is that before the New Year most of my projects were finished, there was only one active commercial project. After February 24, everything turned into volunteering. But it was okay for me. I accepted that it was bound to happen, and I was glad that in such a terrible state I could somehow be useful.

— The things you drew, was it a reflection or rather a way to distract yourself?

— It was definitely a reflection. I didn't want to draw something literal, such as broken tanks or victims lying on the ground, because we have all seen those pictures anyway, and they are traumatising. When I took my tablet, I was drawing not those pictures but the feelings they evoked: fear, anxiety, pain — they seemed to be hanging in the air, and I could do nothing with them but draw and visualise.

— In your opinion, what is the role of art in a war?

— Before the full-scale invasion, it seemed to me that I was in search of myself, because I was earning my living doing one thing, and my soul was striving for other things — painting pictures, making abstractions and collages. And it seemed that because of the lack of commercial success I couldn't find my niche. But after February 24 I realised that I don't care about the things that had stopped me before, and about self-criticism — that something isn’t worth anyone’s attention or is drawn in a way that isn’t cool enough. 

When the enemy comes and says that you do not exist as a nation, that your art does not exist, that your culture does not exist — this art becomes yet another driving force and a pillar of self-identification. I studied at the Mykhailo Boichuk Kyiv State Academy of Decorative Applied Arts and Design, where our professors talked about the repressions. We understood everything, but we never could have thought that we would face it ourselves.

— Have you noticed the interest of people from other countries on your page?

— Yes, I have got acquainted with a few people. I am now friends with one British woman, her name is Sue, we communicate. She texted me on my creative account, though I am not quite active there. Sue said that she had bought two of my posters, and then she made a post in her profile saying that she is supporting Ukraine; she tagged me and Artists Against War, and showed these posters on the wall. This is a really important moment for an artist, especially when you work in digital format and you don’t understand what happens to your works afterwards. And when you see that a person got the posters, framed them, hung them on the wall — it's nice. You can feel that she was awed by these works. I think she is 60 years old. She is also involved in other projects. You can see that this person knows the context; she knows when we have Independence Day or Vyshyvanka Day. And though I understand that the British people probably can already feel the economic consequences of the Russian invasion, still, this does not affect their support for Ukraine.