Far, Far Away. Postcards from Pre-Revolutionary Ukraine

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, the attraction of the picture postcard followed, after a fashion, the growing appetite  for travel. Every corner of the globe was within reach and Ukraine was no exception. The allure of Ukraine, however, was limited. It was unknown and its relative isolation made it an unlikely destination for the traveller. Nevertheless, for the adventurous, the rewards were great. They encountered a landscape full of contrasts and mystery; a land rich in cultural diversity. Much of it, of course, is no more. But there are reminders; not least of which are the vistas and scenes captured in the postcard, printed initially in the thousands but of which only the odd few remain today.

Far, Far Away, an exhibition of one hundred and thirty four postcards of Ukraine’s pre-1917 urban landscape, speaks to this distant past, providing charming representations of a lost world and a forgotten time. As historical illustrations, they serve to document changes in the built landscape. As images that inspired the traveller, they articulate a particular aesthetic, one that perhaps inclined as much to the imaginary as it did to the real.

The exhibit, organized under the auspices of the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage (PCUH) and St. Thomas More Gallery, opens Sunday, September 21^st at the KUMF Gallery, 2118A Bloor St. W. in Toronto and will run until Sunday, September 28^th, 2008.

An Opening Reception with guest speaker Bohdan S. Kordan, exhibit curator, will be held on Sunday, September 21^st, 3-5 pm. All are welcome.