Nowt to do with Cycling...but what a talent

[Rob Q]

This video shows the winner of " Ukraine’s Got Talent",  Kseniya
Simonova, 24,  drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table
showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during
World War II.  Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric
to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to
tears and she won the top prize of about $130,000.00

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a
bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is
obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the
woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the
sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the
image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking
out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing
outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one in
four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of
a population of 42 million.

Kseniya Simonova says:
"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or
paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially
when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience
members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment."

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vOhf3OvRXKg

[Snoop Doug]

Good post Rob - powerful stuff

[Marcus]

Wow wow wow.
Great find Rob.
The word arist is severley overused on many occassions, in this instance it couldn't be more appropraite.
Great talent, great depiction of a very very sad occassion in history.