Mavki. Camouflage.

The project’s heroines are real women of the Ukrainian village of Gorenka. In March 2022, Gorenka was on the front line and was constantly shelling, according to the UN, destroyed 77% of the buildings. Houses were destroyed, and neighbours died before the residents’ eyes, severely traumatising them. Despite the ongoing war, Kyiv Oblast’s liberation gave an impetus to Gorenka’s reconstruction and the restoration of communal social ties. Striving to be useful community members, Gorenka’s women – of different ages and backgrounds but united by the desire to do something important together – organised the volunteer group’ Gorenski Mavky’.

The group produces nets that imitate natural colours and ‘kikimori’ – camouflage clothing for snipers and scouts, which makes the military invisible and saves lives. There is a constant need as they go to the front as quickly as possible. Volunteers are convinced that camouflage products, woven with love and faith, have the power of charms.

During the most difficult times, people turn to their roots, to the common ground that has shaped their national identity for thousands of years. The Ukrainian folkloric character of the Mavky is one of the most famous. It is sung in legends and depicted in art, as represented in Alyona Grom’s project. Every photo reveals female virtues: beauty, soft power, connection with nature, love, care for family, sincerity, unity with friends.

This project resonates with Andy Warhol’s famous project Camouflage (1986), contrasting camouflage’s impersonality with portraits’ individuality. Camouflage as an abstract pattern offers several interpretations: from stealth to courage, from an idyllic landscape’s beauty to a sniper’s nervous tension. Such an allusion shows the project’s heroines in their vulnerability and, at the same time, as protectors and guardians whose strength is nature itself.