A UNIQUE exhibition of photographs by a Ukrainian Woman living in a Gort is being launched this coming Sunday, March 26 in The Hidden Gem Café in Bridge Street. 

‘Gort Night Shadows’ is an exhibition of photographs of the town and its surroundings at night, accompanied by poetry about Ireland through the eyes of Polina Bashkina who arrived in Gort in March 2022 after fleeing the war in Ukraine.  The exhibition runs up to the end of April and all funds raised will be donated to Ukrainian Animal Charities.

“I started learning to draw,” Polina said. “And I ran out of black paint first. No wonder: even being far away, you are attuned to the colour scheme of your country – to the darkness that is trying to absorb the light of my Ukraine. However, in Ireland, I discovered that black could be poetic.”

Polina is a writer from Ukraine who temporarily lives in Gort due to the war in her country. In November 2021, Polina’s book 12 Months. A Year of Sense was published in Ukraine, which tells us how to find our calling in life. Since arriving in Ireland, she has written over 14 articles for The Irish Examiner and The Journal on the war in Ukraine.

This exhibition will be officially launched on Sunday, March 26, at 1pm in the Hidden Gem. This launch will coincide with local Gort poetry group, the Ploughed Field Collective’s, monthly poetry gathering called ‘Poetry Inside’. Polina has been a member of the Ploughed Field Collective since she arrived in Gort and has read her poetry at a number of their poetry gathering.