A Ukrainian artist has used 5,000 spent cartridge cases to create a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin titled A Face Of War.
The work by Daria Marchenko, 33, is a remarkably realistic and politically tinged depiction of Putin in a dark suit and red tie. It stands more than 2 meters tall and dominates the artist's studio apartment.
"Sleeping in the same room with him was a bit scary at first," Marchenko said. "But I got used to it."
"The war is full of human lives, which are like cartridge cases," she explained. "If people remember this, if people who came to Ukrainian lands with aggression remember this, war will not begin."
Marchenko says she uses light on the portrait to accentuate Putin‘s character and emotions.
"Depending on the lighting he gets accents on the cheekbones or eyes. Depending on the light, the emotions in the eyes change. This work has different facial expressions, different characters."
The cartridge cases, mostly from Kalashnikov rifles, were collected by volunteers from sites near Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine and other battlefields in the Donbas region.
