Skip Kaltenheuser
Skip Kaltenheuser, a club member since ’95, has written for a broad array of domestic and international publications on topics including politics, law, business, travel and culture. Some reprised essays are in the Politics mix at https://travelingboy.com/. Versions of some of his travel and slideshow offerings can also be seen at that site. A current concern of Skip’s is the prosecution of Julian Assange and the extent to which media ignores the peril it poses for journalism. Versions of an essay that tries to explain the injustice and the danger - Julian Assange, The Man Who Knew Too Much - can be found online.
Electronic images
Doctor Ironfist
The boxer staring everyone down is Vitali Klitschko, the former world heavyweight champ known as “Doctor Ironfist”, at the Kyiv Contemporary Art Fair, Nov. 2010, in the Art Arsenal complex, once a military weapons factory. A Ph.D. in physical sciences, Klitschko is still punching as a major political player and has been mayor of Kyiv since his election in 2014.
A deconstructed Soviet car
At the Kyiv Contemporary Art Fair held in the Art Arsenal complex, once a weapons factory, a little girl explores and brightens a deconstructed Soviet car, perhaps a Lada, a jab at Soviet industrial repetition, control and boredom. All things Soviet catch plenty of pummeling by contemporary artists in Kyiv's vibrant arts culture. Nov., 2010.
Something fun for children
This bas-relief fragment is a small portion of a war memorial complex at Kyiv's National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, formerly The Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Kyiv is filled with Soviet-era propaganda art, messaging solidarity, often portrayed through conflict with the Nazis. Now the statues are often photo amusements, sometimes something fun for children to climb on. As Ukrainians aren’t feeling the solidarity, dozens of other monuments scattered throughout Kyiv may end up preserved in museums demonstrating Soviet propaganda. Nov. 2010.
Topsy-turvy
The space beneath a massive rainbow sculpture formerly called the Monument to Commemorate the Reunification of Ukraine with Russia, not taken terribly seriously, attracted roadside attractions like this topsy-turvy and a tethered trampoline jump, very exciting at night. Locally known as The Yoke, after the restoration of Ukraine’s independence the rainbow was renamed the People’s Friendship Arch until the Russian invasion, after which it was renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People. The bronze sculpture behind this amusement depicted Russian and Ukrainian workers displaying the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples. As Ukrainians saw the absurdity, Mayor Klitschko had the sculpture dismantled this year. The giant red granite sculpture, of the Pereyaslav Council of 1654 that pledged the allegiance of Cossacks to the Tsar of Russia, is on borrowed time until the war ends. Nov., 2010.
Photos were taken during a writing assignment in Kyiv in November, 2010, during the first year of the presidency of
Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych. Some say Putin intends to reinstate him as President if Putin conquers Ukraine. Viktor’s
corruption was legendary. I think he would have lost the election that was upcoming when the 2014 coup took place, which in
retrospect I think would have been the preferable way to dump him, taking some wind out of Putin’s sails. Who knows?
Here’s hoping for a negotiated solution soon that avoids the onerous hazards now lurking and puts Ukraine on a better
path, damping down the plagues of corruption and oligarchy that have bedeviled that young nation.
More about the photos:
https://travelingboy.com/archive-travel-skip-kiev.html