ANOTHER month of bloodshed in Ukraine, and another month in which street artists around the world have coloured cities yellow and blue in their pleas for peace.
From Berlin to Warsaw, Rome to Buenos Aires, urban artists sent their own messages of solidarity to a country under siege with an array of heartbreaking images.
Like the Cardiff mural by Mydogsighs highlighted last month, many of the works gained a viral following on social media, from Seth Globepainter‘s Paris mural of a little girl crushing tanks under her feet to portraits ridiculing Putin or Berlin-based street artist Eme Freethinker‘s picture of two children — one Ukrainian and one Russian — embracing each other in a declaration of solidarity and peace.
Many were also used to raise funds, as well as sending messages of support to Ukrainians that their agony was shared by millions of ordinary people around the world.
Can street art speak louder than bombs? If anyone would appreciate the impromptu galleries, it’s the people of a country whose capital became a showcase of huge murals in the wake of the Euromaidan protests of 2013.
The current offerings may not be on quite such a grand scale as those covering many storeys of the Soviet-era apartment blocks in Kyiv, but the messages they send are just as attention-grabbing.
Ukraine’s suffering may be continuing, but like the blue and yellow flags fluttering outside so many homes around the world, the street art spells out to Ukrainians that their struggle has not been forgotten.
