A few years ago, when I attended a master class in visual studies, I was given an interesting task – to gather information and create, on its basis, the image of a Ukrainian superhero.
This allowed me to get acquainted with the uncommon life story Ivan Piddubny, an outstanding Ukrainian athlete.
As one of the methods of idea generation is transferring the object of study to a different context, the figure of Ivan Piddubny almost ideally suited my intention. Although there was no need to vest him with superheroic capacities, for he really had some, there really was a problem with a context. For nine out of ten references to him began with the words “outstanding Russian wrestler.”
As for the contexts, he was born in Poltava guberniya (now Cherkasy oblast) to a family of Cossack descent, and when he was given the internal passport, in which he was recorded as a Russian, he corrected it for “Ukrainian” with his own hand. I saw a photo of his residence with Ukrainian towels hanging on the walls. So there should be no questions about the true context, right?
One should only remember that Ivan Piddubny is our fellow countryman who was the world’s invincible wrestler for 25 years in a row. It is really superheroic!
