Yeseniia Serdiuk’s Refugee Story
My name is Yeseniia Serdiuk and I am a local artist and model maker. I am originally from
Nikopol, a small town in the south of Ukraine. I remember my hometown being full of
memories, bright childhoods and rich history. However everything changed in 2022 when the
full-scale war started in my homecountry. My hometown of Nikopol has been under constant
Russian attacks since summer 2022 and now it is located only four kilometers from the
occupied territory and seven kilometers from also occupied nuclear power plant.
I started doing art in 2022 after experiencing war myself, as a way to cope with things I had
gone through. After the constant attacks started, my family and I had to spend nights and
days in the basement. We slept next to cold and wet walls, kept all of our food in containers,
water in bottles, clothes in suitcases, in case we had to urgently leave home. While hearing
explosions nearby, almost every night we played board games to distract ourselves from
attacks, hoping that we would wake up the next morning.
The night sky that was lit up by explosions and the smell of smoke on the streets. My family.
We were together… This is what I believe made it easier to survive and helped us to keep
living our lives after tens of attacks every single night.
In March 2023, my mother and I came to England, and after some time, art became my
voice, something more than just a hobby or distraction from my memories and pain within,
but a way to spread awareness and talk about something that is being left unspoken too
often. I started with paintings and drawings, and after time, it led me to miniature models.
Since then, my artworks have been part of various exhibitions across the UK and a recent
solo exhibition in Hull, with more to come in the upcoming years.
I believe that small-scale artworks sometimes speak louder than actual words, it allows me
to create something that is understandable enough so no context needs to be explained out
loud. It helped me to visualize my own stories and experiences. Made it easier to cope with
everyday routine and reality.
Seeing war and death with your own eyes shapes and affects you at the same time. It made
me stronger and made me realize how fragile our lives actually are. One second everything
is normal, and the next – you are stripped of everything.
This is one of my miniature models called Stripped of Everything, it was also exhibited at the Parliament in London in the “War Through Children’s Eyes” exhibition and was part of the
exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery.
This model is a depiction of all the cities of Ukraine that have been destroyed and that are
being destroyed as we speak. It is about the contrast and the reality of our lives – the way
cities are being razed to the ground, the scale of the devastation, and how thousands of
people are left with broken and shattered lives, how thousands of lives have been taken. It
highlights the contrast between life and death, which has, unfortunately, become a daily
norm for so many people. It shows the contrast between before and after, how cities looked
before the war and how they look now, the life before and after.
This model was inspired by my own experiences of war and by the experiences of others. I
want to show the impact on people’s lives-not on politicians, but on ordinary people who did
nothing to deserve death. They did nothing to deserve losing their homes or loved ones. Yet
this is the reality, a reality that somehow became normal for the world.
This model has some details that are more than just a story: one of the houses in the model
is a copy of my family’s house back in Nikopol with two figures next to it – a figure of a person
and a dog… my father and our dog, who are just standing outside, waiting.
What is it they are waiting for? For our family to see each other again? For some hope that
they will wake up the next day? Or death? It is that uncertainty that is part of our lives, you
don’t know what tomorrow will look like or whether you will see it at all.
There is also a burnt-down and destroyed van with a sign that says “Children” on it, which is
about all the cars with children who were trying to evacuate, yet Russians still killed them.
They knew that it was a bus or car full of children yet it didn’t stop them. Those children were
trying to escape, they were trying to find a better life, they wanted to survive and wanted to
live. There is also a playground in a devastated residential area. It speaks of destroyed childhoods and lives of all the innocent kids that have been taken during the war.
This model is a terrifying story, a story that is our life. It is about real war and how
devastating it is, in Ukraine and around the world.
For me, art is a story that needs to be heard and seen by people. My aim has always been
to show the influence of war on people and their lives. How it affects, destroys, kills… yet
makes you stronger and makes you go further no matter what happens. My father and family
are still back in Ukraine, my parents are the main source of motivation that helps me keep
going. Because I understand that it is just a matter of time before I get that unknown phone
call telling me how sorry they are for my loss.
My art is about survival, resilience and displacement. It is about that label of being a child of war yet not giving up. It is a story that needs to be told… because who else, if not us?
I am currently developing a new art installation for the Freedom Arts Festival 2026 called
“Through the Ruins.” The project is supported by Arts Council England and will be part of the
festival’s program in September this year. The installation will reflect on themes of war,
resilience, the refugee experience and the real price of war – human life. The immersive
experience will allow the audience to literally walk through a destroyed city, looking at traces
of past life scattered across the installation, followed by lights and sounds.
See more about Yeseniia’s story and art work on her website: Click Here