Ukraine ablaze

Blind spot

Technique:

Acrylic spray on c-print, pen on paper

Year:

2014 - 2015

The title of an artwork «The Blind Spot» by Mykola Ridnyi is borrowed from ophthalmology. A blind spot is a small area on the retina, where the image is created. To complement it, we rely on our own knowledge and memory without taking into account that we are continuously constructing reality. During the disease the blind spot can be perceived by a person – from the small spot to the total darkness that "fills in" the eye. Ridnyi uses this concept as a metaphor for our society in a state of media war. Basing upon the images from the media reports about the war in Eastern Ukraine, the artist completely destroys them with ink. This work is a critical statement on the mechanical following the reality designed by the media. And social blindness imposed by the propaganda of war, which creates polar vision of reality, dividing society into "us" and "them", "ours" and "theirs."

Text`s autor — Tetyana Kochubynska

Mykola Ridnyi. Blind spot