Have you ever used a cocktail to paint a portrait? (Don’t worry, neither have we.) With the help of his production crew and a book of archived photos and documents, Russian street artist Radya can proudly claim that he has. He’s created giant portraits of six World War II USSR soldiers – Guard Major Fedor Spekhov, Colonel Formichev, Guard Sergeant I.D. Serebrjakov, Guard Lieutenant V.A. Markov, and two unknowns – adding tone and texture to them by strategically bandaging fabrics to wooden panels and setting them ablaze with Molotov cocktails.
After completing the construction of the portraits, Radya and his daring crew assembled the “Eternal Fire” installation over the windows of an abandoned hospital that used to house the wounded during wartime.
