Alevtina Kakhidze. From the series Strawberry Andreevna, 2014–2019. Drawing

Series description

The project Strawberry Andreevna began on April 14, 2014, with the occupation of Alevtina Kakhidze’s hometown Zhdanivka in the Donetsk region, where her mother, Lyudmyla Andriivna Kakhidze, continued to live. She was a kindergarten teacher, and the nickname Strawberry Andreevna was given to her by one of the children in her group. The artist adopted it to conceal her mother’s real name for safety reasons. Kakhidze created a separate Facebook page with the same title, where she documented her daily conversations with her mother. These covered her mother’s firm refusal to leave her home and garden, quarrels with the occupiers, the availability of utilities, New Year celebrations, her dog Irma, and her work at the local market. Often they lost contact, and the only place residents of Zhdanivka could still gather and make phone calls to their relatives was the cemetery, where mobile connection still existed. In parallel, the artist created a series of drawings illustrating events from life under occupation. Alevtina Kakhidze’s project can be viewed as an alternative history of the Russian war against Ukraine, offering an inside perspective that is often inaccessible—let alone in full—to journalists.

Alevtina Kahidze’s project can be seen as an alternative historiography of the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war, as she was able to document an insider’s perspective, which is often inaccessible, especially in full, to journalists.