Black sunflower art to raise awareness for Ukraine
The artwork in Bristol commemorates those who have died on both sides of the conflict.
**Black sunflower art to raise awareness for Ukraine**
Duncan McKellar says he hopes to turn the work into an art exhibition in the winter
An artist who has been painting sunflowers black says he hopes the project will help draw attention to the war in Ukraine.
Around 100 sunflowers were planted by artist Duncan McKellar on a patch of grass beside Bristol's City Hall.
McKellar originally planted the flowers last year as a "guerilla artwork memorial", but he has since been granted permission and is now painting the plants black as they naturally die, in an effort to further raise awareness of the conflict.
"Black itself is synonymous with death, the flowers themselves have died and they're arranged in a grid which is intended to look like war graves," said McKellar of his artwork entitled Flowers for the Fallen.
McKellar says he intends to use the black-painted flowers as the foundation for a planned exhibition in February, which will mark the fifth anniversary of the war.
The artist says the work is meant to commemorate those who have died on both sides of the conflict.
Neither side releases casualty figures, but estimates place the total losses from both Russia and Ukraine in the hundreds of thousands.
The black paint was selected because it is "synonymous with death"
Western support and public attention for the war has risen and fallen over the past four years.
Zhenya Alshkil is a Ukrainian living in Bath who founded a group called Friends of Oleksandriya, which has been supporting Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees living in the UK since the war began.
Alshkil says that "British people have done a lot" for Ukraine, but adds that the war continues to intensify.
"Many Ukrainians went back home [over the summer] because there is a strong pull to go home and also fathers could be fighting or they can't leave Ukraine because they're under 60 and there is martial law which stops them from joining their families here," she said.
"Many of them came back just now and they're in a very poor state, the situation escalated on 27 August.
"The drone attacks lasted almost non-stop apart from a few days when Americans came for peace talks, but otherwise Kyiv is under fire all the time."
Alshkil has organised several cultural events and art installations in Bath and says they are an excellent way to strengthen positive cultural links and support her country from the UK.
McKellar says he hopes his work can also help bring Ukraine back into people's thoughts.
"I don't think many people are walking down Park Street thinking about Ukraine but hopefully as they hit College Green that thought would be put back into their head," he said.