Zone Passes through Me

The American definitely liked the picture.

‘What is it called?’ he turned to the translator.

‘Apples in the Snow,’ he replied.

‘Hm,’ the American snorted derisively. ‘I would call it “Mismanagement”.’

Without knowing it, the American issued a “dill”. For apples and that snow are radioactive. They are from the Chernobyl zone.

Is it mismanagement? It’s a crime. After all, it is not only about the desecrated mother earth. It is about us too. It is about the fate of descendants. And therefore it is so painful and worrying to look at the canvases of artist-stalker Peter Yemets.

For some, Yemets is not a professional artist because he has no diploma. Forgive me, but where and when the country boy, whose father was killed by the war, could study? His school is a collective farm. Instead of a brush he had hard levers of the tractor. The working day, as they say in accounting, is not normal, from dawn till dusk. And only free hours, and there are a little of them, for the paper, canvas. It would seem that the talent generously donated by nature will wither away; life, family efforts, work not by vocation will turn it into a simple hobby.

But the very happy incident happened here, an art-design workshop was organized in Volodarka. Of course, one cannot entice professionals here — it is not prestigious. Therefore, Peter was welcomed. He was happy too, because now all day he could spend with a brush, paints...

Yemets asked to send him to the “zone”. No, he didn’t want to be in the role of the chronicler. The elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident was in the hands of many people. The military registration and enlistment offices of the reserve collected the soldiers of the reserve and, allegedly for field training, took them to work in radioactive places. Peter went as a volunteer.

In the painting “Like a Nightmare” one can see a man, naked to the waist, with a girl in his arms. His bloodless gray body is permeated by the rows of barbed wire. The man, in whom it is easy to recognize Yemets, is trying to escape from the fence, but the wire holds its victim tightly.

‘The zone passes through me,’ says Peter. ‘It would never let go. I still visit it. Only I can’t stay in the zone for a long time. I snatched up... By the way, did you see such a dandelion?’

I am already familiar with the picture “What Are You Punished for, My Dear Land?”, but I didn’t look attentively at the plant the liquidator stands over on his knees and with the hands raised. But now...What is this? These are the large yellow flowers without stalks. They grew directly on the leaves!

‘The mutant dandelion,’ explains Peter. ‘It can be found only in the zone.’

‘The zone passes through me’ ... This is not only an image. This is a bitter reality. The zone has undermined the artist’s health, increasingly throwing him on a hospital bed. In Crimea, there is a rehabilitation center for Chernobyl liquidators, but there was no ticket for Yemets so he could go there.

It’s a paradox, Peter Zakharovich was the one of the first who began to build the center. It would seem that fate finally smiled at him. From the cramped room in the dorm, where the three of them lived, he moved to a normal apartment. Through the UN, he traveled to the USA, where he was treated, gave lectures, and exhibited his works. We haven’t seen each other for a long time, and when he called, I was genuinely happy, I asked him a thousand of questions ‘How is your health? How is America? How are your exhibitions?’

‘Don’t you know anything?’ Peter’s voice trembled. ‘Katya died...’

One more tragedy. The first family fell apart. The death is in the second one. Peter stayed with his daughter Ivanka. Depression. But Yemets is a strong man. When I came to him, he led me to an easel ‘I was drawing all night long.’ Smiling Kate, Peter’s wife, was looking at me...

Recently, in Kiev, the exhibition of P. Yemets “Bells of Chernobyl” was completed. One of the paintings Peter put up for sale. This money is not for him. I read in the newspaper about a boy who has leukemia. Stalker knows what it is like...

Alexander Vinokurov.

Kiev.

October 23, 1992

Peter Yemets. “Self-portrait”, 1987. “The Road from the Promised Paradise”, 1989. “Chernobyl Madonna”, 1987.