By Art Review
The artist David Chichkan has been killed fighting on the frontline of Ukraine-Russia war. Chichkan helping to repel a Russian infantry assault in the Zaporizhia area in the southeast of Ukraine.
Chichkan rose to prominence with his uncompromising anarchist critique of Ukrainian society, catalysed by what he described as the ‘transformative potential’ of the Maidan revolution.
In 2022 his solo exhibition Ribbons and Triangles at Lviv Municipal Art Center was vandalised by a group of unidentified, right-wing activists unhappy with Chichkan’s alteration of the Ukrainian blue and yellow flag, Ukrainian embroidery, and elements of traditional costume to include other, more revolutionary colours. Black, in Chichkan’s hands, denoted the idea of anti-authoritarianism and decentralism; purple, represented feminism; and red was used to refer to social equality and direct democracy. In the same show, the artist imagined two new associations for a reformed Ukraine, hanging banners for the speculative anarchist workers’ associations ‘The Network of Social Revolution Groups’ and ‘Coordination of the Initiatives of the Emancipation of Labour’.
