"I was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine and lived there under Soviet occupation until my family was given a refugee visa and immigrated just a month prior to the fall of the Soviet Union. When we were en route to the airport in Moscow to fly abroad, I vividly recall seeing the military tank groves, deep carved repeating lines stamped into the asphalt of the main avenues and streets. What I saw were traces of the political upheaval that ultimately toppled the USSR. The patterns, groves and imprints of political unrest continue to fascinate and disrupt my sensibilities throughout my life."