A Unique Book of Ukrainian Street Art

A UNIQUE BOOK OFUKRAINIAN STREET ART

Desplácese hacia abajo para leer este proyecto en español. (Spanish text below.)WHY AM I GOING TO UKRAINE TO DOCUMENT STREET ART?PERSONAL STATEMENT OF MOTIVATION, BY DAOUD SARHANDI WILLIAMS

Like most people, I felt outraged when Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, claiming that the Ukrainian people have no right to their own nation.

For a long time, I felt powerless: what could I do? The forces at play are so vast. But now I've come up with a cultural project that is truly original – a book of Ukrainian street art.

I will put together a book that showcases this art. Ukrainian artists have been painting their ideas and identity on the walls of their cities since 2014, and especially since the Russian invasion. Some foreign artists have joined them and added an international perspective. My book will make a permanent and beautiful record of this creative explosion.

In return for your support, I’m offering you a documentary-style series of podcasts about Ukrainian daily life – along with a postcard sent from Ukraine with an original "Russian Warship" stamp.

My initial trip is planned, booked and organised. I leave for Kyiv on the 12th of August. I will take photos, meet street artists, as well as art and culture students and professors at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The material I gather on this trip will form the backbone of the book.

As soon as I get home in September (I am currently living in Spain) I will start putting the book together.

WHY IS THIS BOOK IMPORTANT?

Firstly, this book is an excellent way of supporting the Ukrainian people’s right to their own identity.

Secondly, the street art I intend to photograph could soon disappear. It is of great historic and artistic importance.

Moreover, by conserving this art – in a book – we are all stating that UKRAINE MUST BE FREE!

The book will be a gesture of support for Ukrainian democracy. At the same time, it is a statement of defiance in the face of Russian imperialism.

The beauty of this project is that it’s low-cost and long-term; nothing survives the generations like a well-made book.

I am only asking enough here to cover basic travel and hostel lodging costs for my first trip. But the more you can help out the better, as a second trip to Ukraine almost certainly will be needed. And then I will need to spend a lot of time designing, as I did on my last book, Bosnian War Posters.

So please support this project. Between us, we can make A Unique Book of Ukrainian Street Art happen.

WHY IS THIS BOOK "UNIQUE"?

Firstly, the best street art from Ukraine hasn't been shown in book form before. Neither has it been photographed in detail.

I will also photograph the streets around the murals. This will frame the art and put it into context. These street photos will be reproduced in a "film-strip" type presentation; in other words, a sequence of images from the same location and time. We will get to see what Ukrainian streets feel like at this unique historic moment.

To the best of my knowlege, new Ukrainian street images of protest and sorrow have not been systematically photographed and put into context.

All this street-level visual information will be beautifully designed and explained in captions.

Your donation will make this book happen.

MY EXCLUSIVE PODCASTS FROM UKRAINE

Everyone who supports our project will get access to my original podcasts from Ukraine. They will only be available to supporters of this project, who will get email notifications about new instalments. In other words, they will be exclusively for you.

You may be wondering what will make my podcasts unique, and the answer is that they will offer a completely different perspective from what mainstream journalists present. Journalists and media analysts offer a rather narrow angle, reporting on the same stories, day after day: the military to-and-fro; a superficial glimpse at Ukrainian people (whose tragedies are noted then immediately forgotten); insights into Russia, energy, economics, and Putin; and strategic/geopolitical overviews by retired generals and academics.

I’m a successful writer and documentary filmmaker, and I have a different approach. I will offer you a series of insights into Ukrainian life that you won’t find elsewhere. I’ll start off by describing the situation at the Polish border; what’s the customs procedure like? How long is the queue? What’s the state of the buses and trains? Who’s travelling? Are they friendly? What’s the state of the roads? Are any of the bridges blown up on the road to Kyiv? How dangerous is it to visit Ukraine? What are the foreign journalists like? Do they all hang out in the same hotels and bars?

What about life in Kyiv itself? What’s my accommodation like? Are things expensive? Is food readily available? Is there a nightlife? Are the utilities working? Are people worried, or are they ignoring the war? What about the artists? Who are they? (Young? Old? Foreign? Local? Do they speak English?) Why are they doing art on the street? Is it true that street art is legal in Ukraine? How much of it is propaganda? How much of it is genuinely artistic?

These are the kind of grassroots issues that are not being reported in the mainstream media. 

MY POTTED HISTORY

Originally from Bristol – a multi-ethnic English city famed for its rebel spirit – I am the same generation as Bristol’s internationally famous musicians: Massive Attack (who were friendsof mine), Tricky, Portishead, and PJ Harvey – as well as Banksy, the most famous street artist in the world.

In 1982, I left Bristol for London. I studied film and photography, became a BBC film editor and then an independent filmmaker, and later a writer. Now, I work on my own projects and occasionally write for Eye Magazine, London.

Having lived and worked in Mexico, Spain, Bosnia, Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, and Palestine during the last 35 years, I consider myself a citizen of the world.

My book, Bosnian War Posters, has just been published in the USA. Bosnian War Posters was successfully crowdfunded on Indiegogo, raising over 100% of its target, and enabling the distribution of free copies to public libraries in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

For more information about my work, visit my website or LinkedIn.

Please read the extensive FAQ section for more information about this project.

I am grateful for the assistance Rupert Wolfe Murray has given me in preparing this crowdfunding appeal. Rupert will be consulting on A Unique Book of Ukrainian Street Art through to the book's publication.

A Unique Book of Ukrainian Street Art will be supported in Spain by Open Art Association.

The amount requested here (€1,750) will finance the following (any additional funds raised will go towards a second trip to Ukraine next year, and will assist in my work designing and packaging the book):

• Flight (Barcelona-Kraków-Barcelona): €300
• Internal transport (Poland and Ukraine): €200
• Hostel in Kyiv (three weeks): €200
• Salary for a local Ukrainian guide/fixer:  €500
• Obligatory Ukrainian medical insurance (three weeks): €50
• Miscellaneous expenses in Ukraine (three weeks): €500

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UN LIBRO ÚNICO SOBREEL ARTE URBANO UCRANIANO

EL PORQUÉ DE MI VIAJE A UCRANIA PARA DOCUMENTAR EL ARTE URBANOCARTA DE MOTIVACIÓN DE DAOUD SARHANDI WILLIAMS

A principios del 2022 cuando Rusia invadió Ucrania, me sentí indignado por esta guerra como si la población ucraniana no tuviese derecho a ser libre y tener su propia nación.

Durante mucho tiempo, me sentí impotente. «¿Qué puedo hacer?», me preguntaba a mí mismo. Lo que está en juego es algo tan grande. Pero por fin he dado con un proyecto cultural. Que va ser visible aquello para los que para muchos es invisible: la resistencia de Ucrania y su manifestación a través del arte. Se tratará de un libro acerca del arte urbano ucraniano: Ucrania Street Art

El libro que voy a realizar consiste en mostrar el arte de la calle como los murales. En esa muestra de los murales también mostraré su vida cotidiana. Los artistas de Ucrania han estado pintando su identidad y su forma de resistencia a través de los muros de las ciudades desde 2014, y, sobre todo, a partir de la invasión rusa. A esto también se han sumado artistas extranjeros, añadiendo así una perspectiva internacional.

Con tu donativo podré realizar este libro con un registro visual único acompañado de secuencias de la vida cotidiana. A cambio de tu apoyo, te ofrezco como recompensa: una serie de podcasts de estilo documental acerca de la vida cotidiana ucraniana, así como postales de los murales.