'Icons On Ammo Boxes' - An Art Exhibition with a Difference at Armagh Robinson Library
Thursday 9th - Friday 24th October 2025 - Armagh Robinson Library
Event: National Poetry Day 2025 at Armagh Robinson Library
Date: Thursday 9th - Friday 24th October 2025
Time: Monday to Friday - 10.00am - 1.00pm & 2.00 - 4.00pm
Open Night: Thursday 9th October from 7.30pm
Location: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey St, Armagh BT61 7DY
What3Words: ///happen.landscape.earliest
Price: FREE
An Art Exhibition with a Difference
Armagh Robinson Library is pleased to be the first venue in Northern Ireland to host a very special exhibition with a difference. The title is ‘Icons on Ammo Boxes’ and the exhibition is made up of artwork painted on the bases of empty ammunition boxes from Ukraine.
The artists are Sonya Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko from Kyiv. They have chosen to combine two contrasting objects in their artwork by using ammunition boxes to paint religious icons. Their aim is to transform death, linking with the ammunition box, into life, shown in Ukrainian life by an icon. The boxes have been brought from the war zone and the artists believe that the icons painted on these fragments are silent yet eloquent witnesses of the war. They also play another important role as they are for sale, with proceeds going to buy ambulances and evacuation vehicles on the front line in Ukraine.
The exhibition has been displayed in a wide range of venues throughout Europe, and most recently in Scotland. Armagh Robinson Library has had the pleasure of working with Ukrainian families who are living in County Armagh and the Library wants to continue this valued link with them. A special open night will be held on Thursday 9 October 2025 from 7.30pm in the Library. The exhibition will run until Friday 24 October, following the Library’s normal opening hours.
Speaking ahead of the open night, one of the Ukrainian mothers, Inna Shynkevich said, “This exhibition is very special to us because it shows how even in the darkest times, life and hope can be born out of destruction. We are honoured to bring it to Northern Ireland for the first time, and I sincerely hope that more venues across the region will open their doors so that as many people as possible can see these powerful works.”
The Keeper of the Library, the Very Revd Shane Forster, added, “We are deeply humbled to receive and have the opportunity to display these beautiful Ukrainian icons. They tell a story of a war-torn land, of death, destruction and despair, but also of hope, faith and light in the midst of the darkest of times.”
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