About the Project
I had the honor to illustrate the English translation of Victoria Amelina's short story 'Nameless Ones' for Index on Censorship (UK), translation by Stephen Komarnyckyj. A huge thank you to Jemimah Steinfield, Katie Dancey-Downs and Daisy Ruddock for this amazing opportunity.
Victoria Amelina was a Ukrainian writer, poet and human rights researcher. She was killed by a Russian missile targeting a restaurant in summer 2023. She was also known for founding the New York literary festival that took place in a village of New York, Donetsk region, Ukraine.
The Story Summary
An ambushed Ukrainian soldier in Donbas finds a seemingly empty house where he decides to take shelter. The past and the future collide when he later finds out that there are two other tenants in the house: a little girl whose grandma went out and apparently was killed by shelling; and Cheburashka, the girl's favorite toy based on a Soviet animation character.
Draft Images
Above are the draft images I sent to Index on Censorship for approval. I was very happy when they wrote they loved them, so I immediately began finalizing them.
Pencils
Final Illustrations
The girl is watching from the closet at the praying soldier. She is also worried that her toy is not with her as she forgot about him while hiding from the soldier.
The soldier is directing all his rage and anger at Cheburashka, ripping him into shreds. The Soviet character, while cute and seemingly harmless, is too tightly connected to the Soviet regime and the neo-imperialist Russia.
When the soldier finds the girl, they begin interacting. Talking, but mostly sitting in silence and eating apricot jam. The soldier is heart-broken that this young girl is infected with the 'virus' of Russian propaganda and thinks that she lives in 'Novorossiya', an artificial entity that the Russian authorities made up to justify their invasion of parts of Donbas in 2014.
In Print
You can check out these images in print in Summer 2024 issue of Index on Censorship.
Thank You!
