Euromaidan
As an International Relations graduate, I wanted my artwork to provide a snapshot of the desolate consequences of diverging policy between the western-led order and Russia’s support for Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovych. This piece aimed to capture the very epicenter of a national and international crisis. It provides a glimpse of the impact, struggle, pain, and hostility at a micro-level. My artwork displays the situation ‘on the ground’ surrounding the Ukrainian crisis showing a pro-democracy Ukrainian citizen being beaten by uniformed Ukrainian Riot police following orders from the pro-Russian Ukrainian President Yanukovych.
This piece aimed to highlight via a bottom-up approach the wider geopolitical crisis: the increased confrontation and hostility between the Western-led order and Russia. In 2013, Ukraine found itself as the battleground between Cold War-style pressures from Russia to undermine and influence democracy abroad to sway the expansion of Europeanization in order to shift the balance of power in Russia’s favor. Russia was deeply concerned with the eastward expansion of NATO and the EU in the post-Soviet sphere. This trajectory of liberal democracy and economic liberalization in Ukraine was at direct odds with Putinism. Thus, when President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the association agreement with the EU in November 2013, mass violent unrest was sparked and a new political movement called ‘Euromaidan’ ultimately led to a revolution and overthrow of Yanukovych. On-going conflict and civil war, particularly in eastern Ukraine, between the Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian militants, dominated Ukraine for many years to follow, even leading to Russia annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
My artwork aimed to show the emotive struggle and suffering Russia’s foreign policy has had on Ukraine and its people, showing a helpless pro-democracy Ukrainian being brutally beaten as a consequence of deep tensions between two political ideals in Europe.
Toby King-Thompson is a contemporary artist based in London, UK. As a synesthete, Toby sees words, names, and digits in color. His works have been featured extensively internationally and he is experienced in fine art, post-impressionism, and abstract expressionism. Holding a BA in International Relations from the University of Exeter, Toby has centered global affairs in a number of his works.