“It Is Also an Invasion of Our Childhoods”: A Ukrainian Artist Reflects on How the War Has Changed Her Memories

The Kiev of Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi’s childhood had already long ceased to exist when tanks rolled into her former neighborhood last February. In an effort to protect her memories of the Ukrainian capital—which she and her family left for Israel just weeks before the fall of the Soviet Union—the artist, who is now based in Tel Aviv, had started a series called “Soviet Childhood,” rendering in vivid detail (and an engagingly schematic style) certain “sentimental, nostalgic” moments from her formative years in the USSR. Now, one year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Cherkassky-Nnadi has added significantly to that body of work, reimagining the Ukraine that she once knew in its brutal contemporary context. The work is emotional, unsparing, and, for Cherkassky-Nnadi, a meaningful way to take stock and make sense. 

Last week, during the final days of a group show in Tel Aviv featuring all female, Ukrainian-born artists, Cherkassky-Nnadi spoke to Vogue about capturing Kiev, then and now.

Vogue: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat. To step backward a bit, you lived in Kiev until you were about 15, is that right?

Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi: Fifteen, yeah.

Can you tell me a bit about what those early years were like for you? What was your family life like before you moved to Israel?

I came to Israel just two weeks before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I was sure Kiev was the capital of the world. This is how I saw it, because it was the capital of Ukraine, and it was a very beautiful city with a lot of things going on. I thought, This is the center of the world. And it was the Perestroika time. Everything was permitted and everybody was in euphoria because it was something new. Suddenly you can do things that you couldn’t do before. Actually, it was a great time for me as a youth, because everything was open and you could listen to music from the West. But I guess my parents, they were a little bit afraid about where it was going. I think that was the reason they decided to immigrate.

And over the years, after you moved, did you visit Ukraine often?