Sunflower Variations

This is Ukraine

A composition in 27 parts

  • Helianthus annus. Sunflowers breed warm, from cream to yellow, orange to mahogany brown.

    In the wild, sunflowers have many flowered heads; the domestic sunflower usually has only one.

    Since 2012, Ukraine has been the world’s leading exporter of sunflower oil.

    Sunflower seeds are food. The seeds can also be used to make flour and oil. If left unrefined, sunflower oil has a distinctive taste that lingers in your mouth like musk.

    Sunflowers only turn their heads toward the sun when they are young. A mature sunflower knows better. 

    A sunflower is a composite of many flowers presenting as a single flowerhead. These multitudes of tiny flowers produce interconnecting spirals in Fibonacci sequences. 

    Sunflowers are used by the United Kingdom as a symbol for hidden disabilities. 

    The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine.

  • In biology: any difference between cells, individual organisms, or groups of organisms caused either by genetic or environmental factors. Variation may be shown in physical appearance, behavior and/or other obvious or measurable characteristics.

    In music: technique consisting of changing one or more aspects of a composition melodically, harmonically, or in counterpoint. Examples of musical variation include the Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach, the twelve-tone technique developed by Arnold Schoenberg, and simultaneous variations in Indonesian gamelan music.

    In art: variated editions diverge slightly from piece to piece by using different surfaces, materials, colors or techniques. Can also be called artist proofs and variated proofs, among other terms

The 27 pieces included within this project represent the 27 administrative regions of Ukraine, including those areas occupied illegally by Russia starting in 2014.

About this Project

Sunflower Variations—this is Ukraine was created as a companion to my hybrid chapbook, Kyivsky Waltz—a love story, which was published by Finishing Line Press in March 2024.

Kyivsky Waltz chronicles my time living in Ukraine in the mid-1990s, where I helped establish one of the country’s first independent newspapers. The Ukraine I experienced was certainly flawed—what country isn’t? But it was also a nation focused on new beginnings despite past horrors; a country filled with hope after finally becoming free. Watching history repeat itself as Russia turns Ukraine into a war zone once again has been devastating.

Sunflower Variations serves as a counterpoint to Kyivsky Waltz: where the chapbook invokes memories, this series of 27 letterpress prints—each in its own unique conceptual frame— aims to spark discussion and raise awareness about present-day Ukraine.

The frames were designed and constructed by myself and members of the Introspective Collective of artists (Ana Paula Cordeiro, Aurora De Armendi Sobrino, Thomas Gallagher, Sarah Nicholls, and Konrad Will in this iteration); I originally created the variated sunflower prints for the chapbook.

This showcase features each individual variation, accompanied by a short essay on its topic. All pieces will be auctioned for Razom; a limited-edition artist book documenting the project will also be available.

— KS  Lack, September 2024