Supported by Herefordshire Council through the Ukraine Community Integration grant scheme.
New Leaf is working in partnership with Herefordshire Community Network for Ukraine, Herefordshire Council’s libraries, Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre and the University of Venice’s DiGE Ethnobotany department (the culture of plants and animals).
The Krayina exhibition planned to open on 10th January 2025 at Hereford Archive and Records Centre gallery in Rotherwas Hereford.
Part of the exhibition involves Ukrainian community and their hosts, to take part in a portrait project for the
The artist Jaime Jackson filmed portraits of Ukrainians, hosts and people in the Ukrainian support network, and digitally added flower imagery to the portrait to create an artwork film based on the Vinok, the traditional Ukrainian flower crown.
According to tradition, these head-dresses were worn by young unmarried women, the wreaths are a classic decoration for Ivan Kupala celebrations in early July. Now though, artists are also using them as a reminder of Ukrainian identity and cultural integrity. Since the 2014 Euromaidan uprisings, the wearing of a vinok increased in popularity as part of a wider revival in Ukrainian culturalism and interest in symbols of national pride. Wearing a vinok was also a symbol of protest used in demonstrations beginning in the 2004 Orange Revolution and continuing in the 2014 revolution as well as 2022 demonstrations against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Krayina translates as home, country, one’s roots, but also a landscape, earth, countryside, and wilderness.
The Krayina project supports Ukrainian communities living in Herefordshire, England, with a nature and art socially engaged project. It engages with Ukrainians to reflect and
builds on the needs and cultural context of people’s experiences. By creatively link people with the nature and landscape here, in a rural part of England, with ethnobotanical (the study of a region’s plants and their practical uses through traditional cultural knowledge) research and memories of landscapes in Ukraine, we are working with Ukrainian ethnobotanists through the University of Venice to create an archive of nature-based cultural information. DiGe (unive.it). The project will help in the understanding of obtaining, managing and perceiving of local natural resources, particularly plants, this research is crucial for ensuring sustainability of human life, as the use of plants is a key for survival of humans.
By celebrating and exploring Ukrainian nature-based culture and visiting landscapes here and referencing those in Ukraine. Co-creating artwork in workshops to create an exhibition shown alongside the ethnobotanical archive. We are exploring and share people’s childhood experiences in Ukrainian nature, visiting nature spaces, collecting or viewing plants, exploring their cultural meanings and purposes in medicine, folk-lore and cooking.
Contact email@jaimejackson.org about this project