#coldwar
About Russian Orthodox: I was doing a ton of research about the Cold War and came across this church that was destroyed by Stalin in order to construct the “ideal communist society”. Religious oppression was a significant part of the turmoil felt by the Russian people before and during the Cold War and I wanted to find a way to show that in this piece.
It took a few different mediums before the idea came to carve it straight into the wood, but once it hit me I grabbed a pocket knife and ran with it. Carving the outline of the cathedral into wood became the perfect way to show not only a semi-abstract version of the church, but also allowed it, from different angles, to almost disappear into the wood background. A perfect ode to the near destruction of the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole and the thousands that died along with it during this time.
Happy birthday Laurasia…
You bastard