If You Close Your Eyes You Can See

In this project, Max Hikm explores the influence of external and internal factors (love, war, changes in nature, emigration, etc.) on people's changing values. Each of the art pieces contains his personal voice, serving as a tool to inspire reflection and action.
When war destroys your home, it not only demolishes the building but also shatters everything within you that existed before the devastation.
The things we own can tell a lot about us. Some items shape us, define us, and reflect our dreams, memories, and experiences. I have few such remnants of my past, but one item definitely stands out - the chair. Thirty years ago, I perched on this chair and sketched my first drawing, followed by one more and then another. Sitting on this chair, I drew my greatest fears, innermost desires, and deepest vulnerabilities. This chair became a silent witness to my formation. It became a part of my story.

During the early days of the war, my hometown in Kharkiv Oblast fell under occupation. Shortly after, a russian missile struck the apartment building where I grew up. When the Ukrainian army liberated the town, my mother returned home. There, instead of the familiar wall with a window in the children's room, she found a gaping hole and fragments of a cast-iron bathtub on the doorstep. Amidst the chaos of smashed furniture, scattered belongings, and piles of glass, one item remained steadfast - my chair. It proved resilient, my chair survived. But did I survive after these events?

Now, within the renovated walls of my childhood home, everything feels unfamiliar except for the chair. Is this item enough to retain the essence of my past? How long does the suffering for a lost past persist before fading away? Is there room for hope for a brighter future while wandering the maze of despair and pain, longing to find yourself again? How much pain must one endure on the journey from a shattered self to the creation of a new identity? To reset to zero, to break free from the grip of the past, to believe in the dawn of a new life, to become a new life - yet, will it be so?