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 is a mixed media project that aims to raise awareness and spark discussion about contemporary Ukraine. It features a series of 27 reduction-carved letterpress prints of a sunflower. Each print was hand-inked in five colors and marbled using the suminagashi technique. Every variation is accompanied by a unique conceptual frame and a short essay offering insight into the frame’s subject.

The project was developed as a companion to my hybrid chapbook, Kyivsky Waltz—a love story (Finishing Line Press in 2024). Kyivsky Waltz chronicles my time living in Ukraine in the mid-1990s, when I helped establish one of the country’s first independent newspapers. While Kyivsky Waltz focuses on memory, Sunflower Variations addresses the present invasion and ongoing humanitarian crisis.

These two projects are connected through the sunflower prints. After selecting a variation to use in Kyivsky Waltz, I realized I could do more with the remaining prints. Long revered in Ukraine as a symbol of peace, the sunflower has become a global emblem of Ukrainian resilience and resistance since the start of the Russian invasion. It felt appropriate then, to use these prints as an symbol of Ukrainian identity.

The Ukraine I experienced was far from perfect—what country is? 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 was first exhibited as a site-specific installation in Hudson Valley in November 2024. The pieces, along with a limited-edition artist book, are available for purchase, with all proceeds donated to Razom for Ukraine.

— KS  Lack

The Artist Book

The Sunflower Variations exhibition in a two-dimensional format. Drum-leaf binding with a sculptural cover and a clamshell case. 
Edition of 10.

The Exhibition

Site-specific exhibition and fundraising event offering a snapshot of Ukraine three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion (November 2024)

The Variations

A compendium of the Variations along with their corresponding essays and links to source materials.

Razom for Ukraine was founded in 2014 and is one of the leading US-based nonprofits dedicated to the mission of supporting a democratic and prosperous Ukraine.

Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, provides humanitarian aid, and administers programs and services focused on health, advocacy, civil society and culture. Since the full-scale invasion in 2022, Razom for Ukraine has grown to include over 200,000 donors and volunteers and has raised over $88 million in funds.

Find out more by going to www.razomforukraine.org. 

The name “Ukraine” derives from a word for borderland, and far too often the country itself has been treated as such—a place on the margins—unimportant and dismissed by the empires that controlled it.

As Russia continues its despotic attempt to eradicate Ukraine and all that it stands for, the need to support Ukraine’s right to be free from its historical oppressor is more important than ever.