28 January 2010

simply complicated lemonade

Usually videos get passed around the internet for a couple of generations before my family catches on to the phenomenon that they are (sorry family). So I was surprised when one of my uncles sent me an email with this beauty attached as it was new to me. Enjoy.



This video shows the winner of 2009’s “ Ukraine ’s Got Talent," Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent is mesmeric to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $75,000.

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

An art critic said: "I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment."

4 comments:

Minn said...

This is pretty neat. I actually saw this one a while back, but then, I guess you're not really talking about me are you.

the girL said...

no, i think you're pretty up on your internet sensations as seen in your comment on my latest post

XOXO

Deb said...

It moved me to tears when I saw it a while back on TV....yes TV not the internet.

Matilda said...

I loved this the first time I saw it and then again when Frederick sent it in an email.
Sending love across the ocean!