The Concept Behind the Ceramic Works Created for the 3rd Army Corps

The ceramic works I create for the 3rd Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are built on one central idea: the union of Ukrainian folkloric imagery with the modern military history of Ukraine.

For me, this project is a way to speak about the present through forms that already live deep inside Ukrainian culture. I work with symbols, archetypes, and traditional images not as something distant or decorative, but as a living language that can still speak in a time of war. In these ceramic works, folk culture meets the reality being shaped today by the Armed Forces of Ukraine — courage, resistance, innovation, loss, endurance, and the fight for freedom.

This is the foundation of the concept: to create objects in which deep Ukrainian traditions encounter the modern experience of a country defending itself. Through clay, I try to connect ancestral memory with the history that is being written right now on the battlefield.

Ceramic Motankas

One of the key images in this project is the ceramic motanka.

The traditional Ukrainian motanka is a symbol of protection, continuity, memory, and inner strength. It carries powerful associations with care, ritual, and the bond between generations. In my ceramic interpretation, the motanka remains a protective image, but it enters a new historical reality — the reality of wartime Ukraine.

These works speak about resilience and cultural endurance. They preserve the symbolic depth of the traditional motanka while placing it in direct dialogue with the present.

A special place in this series belongs to the FPV Motanka. In this work, the image of the motanka is combined with FPV elements as a reminder that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were the first to widely develop and apply FPV drones as a new instrument of modern warfare. FPV drones changed the battlefield and became one of the defining symbols of this war. In this piece, ancient protective imagery meets military innovation born from necessity, intelligence, and resistance.

Lembyks

Another important part of this project is the image of the Lembyk.

The Lembyk comes from a distinctly Ukrainian folkloric sensibility. It carries the energy of a symbolic folk character — expressive, memorable, rooted in local imagination and cultural form. In my work, the Lembyk becomes a bridge between folklore and the emotional reality of contemporary Ukraine.

Within the collection created for the 3rd Army Corps, the Lembyk enters a militarized context. It no longer exists only as a folkloric image. It absorbs the weight of the present moment — the atmosphere of vigilance, resistance, courage, and national transformation. In works such as the Lembyk Lion Lamp, the folkloric form is reimagined through a sharper, stronger, more militarized presence.

What matters most to me in these works is this tension: warmth and symbolism from folk culture meeting the hard edge of modern reality. In this way, the Lembyks become not only artistic objects, but images of a culture that continues to live, change, and defend itself.

Why This Project Matters

The ceramic works created for the 3rd Army Corps are based on the belief that culture and resistance cannot be separated. Ukraine is defending not only its land, but also its identity, memory, and future.

That is why these objects are more than ceramic art. They are works about continuity, national endurance, and the living connection between heritage and the present. Through ceramic motankas, Lembyks, and other symbolic forms, I try to show that Ukrainian culture is not frozen in the past — it continues to evolve in the most difficult moment of modern history.

This is the essence of the project:
Ukrainian folkloric imagery meeting the modern military history of Ukraine.
A cultural language of the past entering the urgency of the present.
A way for ceramic art to stand inside resistance, not outside it.