Signum Haereseos Ruthenicae. Stella Mortis

This circular assemblage fuses icon and battlefield relic. A fractured five-pointed star lies within a destabilized field of blue and red, evoking contested identities. Around it, spent bullet casings form a violent halo, replacing sacred symbolism with the material evidence of war. Thick, visceral textures and coagulated red pigment transform the surface into a wound-like field, where the central axis reads as a scar.
In the context of the Russian–Ukrainian war, the work reflects the collapse of imposed meanings and the fragmentation of identity under violence. The star, once a sign of order, becomes a broken emblem of ideology. “Stella Mortis” is a fallen beacon: not guidance, but destruction. The piece embodies post-traumatic experience - memory that resists healing, remaining embedded in matter, form, and perception.