A Desolate
Beauty
Shevchenko
Scientific Society in Montreal “Remembers” Chornobyl Tragedy
By Ireney Zuk
Saturday, April 21,
was just a few days shy of the 26th anniversary of the explosion on
April 26, 1986 at the nuclear plant at Chornobyl in Ukraine, an event that
shook the world and deeply influenced many persons living in the immediate
vicinity and also much further away from the doomed city. It is widely
considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and
is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear
Event Scale - the other was the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011.
Among
various commemorations of this tragedy, the Montreal Branch of the Shevchenko
Scientific Society in Canada organized a somewhat unusual multimedia
presentation “Remembering Chornobyl” given by Olena Serbyn-Sullivan, graphic
designer, photographer and author. This
most recent in a series of meetings of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, was
held at the Patriarch Josyp Slipyj Ukrainian Museum in Rosemount. Dr. Luba Zuk, President of the chapter
opened the evening with brief remarks about the horrific explosion and its
effects on the area surrounding Chornobyl, and about the presentation by Olena
Serbyn-Sullivan. Then, Vice President Olessia Czechut, who did much to organize
and promote this unique event, introduced the guest-speaker (presenter) from
Toronto. In Ms. Chechut’s introduction,
the audience learned of Ms. Serbyn-Sullivan’s career path, her professional
studies, awards and prizes, as well as artistic and literary achievements.
In
lieu of the more common meeting format of a lecture or a paper on a topic of
general interest and the speaker’s specialty, Olena Serbyn-Sullivan guided her
audience through a series of beautiful images which she had taken on a journey
in the exclusion zone around Chornobyl. As an “urban” photographer, she and a
colleague, Mathew Merrett, were granted the right to visit (under supervision)
and photograph the site, both Prypiat’ and the Chornobyl plant, but only for
two days. She recounted the complex procedure which had to be followed to
obtain permission for a visit to the restricted area and the various
difficulties they encountered. Olena mentioned that they took as many pictures
as possible - because she knew she would never return! The audience soon realized that the pictures
of inanimate objects and scenes were filled with a haunting beauty, as if
pointing back to the life that once was all around them but was extinguished by
a forced evacuation. According to wabisabi,
the Japanese aesthetic which Olena explores, all things reveal their true
beauty once they have succumbed to time and the elements. Towards the end of her presentation, Ms.
Serbyn-Sullivan also showed pictures of a few brave women who had returned to
the exclusion zone to live out their lives.
She documented their painstaking efforts to live a normal life and to be
cheerful in the face of difficult circumstances.
The
afternoon meeting concluded with a question and answer period, and with a
discussion about the recently published book by Olena Serbyn-Sullivan:
“Volatile Particles - A Photographic Journey Through Chornobyl’s Exclusion
Zone.”
It
should be mentioned that several local newspapers provided information about
this presentation of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Among these, The
Suburban, Montreal’s largest English weekly, published an extensive
whole-page article in its Magazine section on April 13, 2012, and followed it
up with a shorter notice closer to the event.
Both the Journal de Rosemont and the Montreal Mirror ran
information about the presentation in their editions on April 20, 2012.
One
should note the wide range of topics presented by the Shevchenko Scientific
Society, Montreal Branch, over the last few years, from highly specialized
medical topics to literary or arts-related scholarly presentations (e.g. the
diary of an individual from a specific district in Ukraine). There is no doubt that this latest,
photographic presentation “Remembering Chornobyl” will remain with those who
attended for a long time.
Dr. I. Zuk is Professor and former Director of the School
of Music at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
PHOTO
(L. to R.): Luba Zuk, Olena Serbyn-Sullivan and Olessia Czechut