The work I’ve made since Putin’s invasion started with an older series of works using dictator’s watches to graphically satirize authoritarian greed and corruption. For this work I researched watches worn by individuals — Idi Amin, Trump, Putin, Berlusconi, etc. — and created a graphic dossier of images. Putin’s watch was set against the Ukrainian flag symbolizing the annexation of Crimea in 2014. That earlier work has now morphed into a much different body of work called “On Putin’s Watch.” This work evokes the horror and devastation of Putin’s war by using images from historical paintings that speak to similar manifestations and abuses of power. The different iterations created of these images suggest the many forms that this war encompasses: the repetition of conflicts in Ukrainian history, in family experience, in displacement, in personal grief, and world insecurity. The following examples use photography, drawing, sculpture, woven Jacquard tapestry, and a collection of family embroidery and decorative arts. The inclusion of weaving includes the long tradition of textile arts in Ukraine, and emphasizes the repetitive grid, which, like the ticking time of the watch, is both orderly and deadening. The watches I use in this current body of work are watches from Putin’s extensive watch collection, the Patek Phillipe and the Blancpain ; I have used thess watches as a graphic veil over paintings, drawings and three-dimensional constructions along with the colors of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow.
