45 / 35 cm

Acrylic, fluorescent acrylic, luminescent acrylic 

In this work, the mythology of the urban courtyard of Troieshchyna (Kyiv, Ukraine) transforms into an almost ancient scene of everyday sport. The landscape is a typical residential district of Kyiv: a courtyard with metal workout bars, concrete, a fragment of indifferent sky, and a sense of constant movement between apartment blocks.

At the center of the composition are humanoid pigeons. They are not ironic, but entirely serious in their physical presence: wearing tracksuits, holding dumbbells, frozen in focused poses, as if training is their natural state of being. Their anatomy is simultaneously familiar and slightly displaced into myth — birds that chose to become human, yet retained their avian collectivity and urban resilience.

In the background, the word “GYM” appears like an accidental sign from everyday courtyard reality, turning into a symbol. This is not a fitness club, but a spontaneous infrastructure of survival: street workout bars between buildings, where the body becomes a form of social interaction.

Valera is present as an invisible narrative — a character who has been released. He does not disappear, but transforms into part of this environment: no longer an individual pigeon, but an energy dissolved into a community of training, friendship, and the urban ritual of repeated movement.

“Valera on the Hood” reads as a courtyard utopia: where hierarchy is replaced by collective training, loneliness by shared physical discipline, and animals and humans merge into a single hybrid species of urban survival.

This is a three-layer artwork with a shifting visual identity depending on the lighting conditions. In daylight, the piece reveals one composition; under ultraviolet light, it transforms into a second image; and in nighttime lighting, it reveals a third distinct visual layer.

The work is presented in a handmade custom frame crafted from ash wood, plastered and finished with a pronounced surface texture. Inside, an integrated UV light strip enhances the transformation effect and activates the hidden layers of the composition.

PRICE upon request.

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