In the wreckage of eastern Ukraine, where the physical landscape has been violently reordered by three years of conflict, French artist Alexandre Henry found a different kind of survivor. Amidst the debris of villages like Izium, Kharkiv, and Kherson, he discovered domestic relics—a shattered wooden chair, a splintered door, a twisted window frame—that had endured the same shelling as the civilians who once owned them. These objects, according to Henry, are more than just trash; they are “silent witnesses” that bear the visible and invisible scars of war. His groundbreaking project, “Light Into Darkness,” unveiled at Dutch Design Week 2025, represents a radical form of artistic alchemy. By repairing these broken artifacts with metal melted down from the very Russian missiles that destroyed them, Henry creates a visceral metaphor for reconstruction: turning the instruments of annihilation into the foundations of recovery.
The Anatomy of Alchemical Repair
The technical heart of Henry’s work lies in a process he describes as “prosthetic restoration.” For two years, the artist traveled through war-torn regions alongside the non-profit Dutch Civilian Action, collecting around a dozen incomplete objects damaged by explosions. Rather than hiding the damage, Henry highlights it by forging new components from Russian missile and shell casings. He melted these weapons in local Ukrainian foundries, casting aluminum and steel inserts to replace missing legs of chairs or to brace fractured door panels.
This process mimics the medical reality of many Ukrainian survivors. Just as a soldier or civilian might receive a prosthetic limb after a blast, Henry’s furniture receives metal “grafts.” The result is a series of sculptures where the “wound”—the jagged break where wood meets metal—is the focal point. This fusion of domestic timber and military-grade metal serves as a constant reminder of the violence that occurred, while simultaneously proving that the materials used for destruction can be repurposed for stability.
“Walls Remember”: The Architecture of Memory
One of the most haunting installations within the collection is titled Walls Remember. It features two salvaged window frames that once looked out onto the streets of besieged cities. In Henry’s hands, these frames become frames for portraiture, displaying images of the Ukrainian people he met during his travels. The artist noted that the resilience of the civilians—their “extraordinary dignity and determination”—deeply influenced the way he wanted to represent them through his sculptures.
By pairing the battered frames with the faces of survivors, Henry suggests that the objects and the people share a collective trauma. The “scars” on a wooden door are as much a record of the war as the lines on a person’s face. In the Walls Remember installation, the physical boundary between the domestic interior and the external battlefield is collapsed, forcing the viewer to confront the reality that for millions, “home” has become a direct site of conflict.
Symbolic Objects: From Izium to the Studio
Each piece in the collection tells a specific story of survival. The series includes:
- Two wooden dining chairs: Restored with cast aluminum inserts that replace shattered legs, symbolizing the literal “propping up” of family life.
- An explosion-damaged door: Displayed on a custom stand made entirely from melted shell casings, elevating a common household object to the status of a monument.
- The “Missile Casings” pedestal: A stark, industrial base that supports fragile, domestic ruins, representing the weight of military occupation on everyday existence.
Henry spent three months living in Kyiv to finalize these works, gaining access to local studios and foundries. This proximity to the ongoing conflict ensured that the project remained grounded in the immediate reality of the war. “The project stands as a broader reflection on memory, resilience, and reconstruction,” Henry explained. “Humanity is present through the object: each restored piece is a trace, a wound, and a symbol of collective endurance.”
The Metaphor of the Foundry
The act of melting down Russian missiles in Ukrainian foundries is perhaps the most potent symbolic gesture of the project. It is an act of reclamation—taking the high-tech, expensive materials of modern warfare and subjecting them to the heat of a local furnace to create something humble and useful. Henry’s choice to use the same metal that caused the destruction creates a closed loop of violence and healing.
This metallurgical reversal serves as a metaphor for the Ukrainian people themselves, who have had to rebuild their lives and infrastructure using the very debris left behind by the invasion. By using military waste to “fix” civilian life, Henry suggests that the path to peace is not found by ignoring the trauma, but by literally melting it down and shaping it into something that can support a future.
Future Collaborations and Expanding the Concept
Following the successful exhibition at Dutch Design Week 2025, Alexandre Henry plans to return to Ukraine to deepen the project’s scope. His next phase involves collaborating directly with individuals who have suffered physical injuries and lost limbs in the war. He intends to expand the concept of “prostheses” beyond furniture, exploring how art can facilitate the personal and collective process of healing for those with physical “silent witnesses” on their own bodies.
Through this evolution, Henry seeks to move from the restoration of objects to the empowerment of people. By bridging the gap between artistic sculpture and human experience, he continues to question the role of art in times of catastrophe. Light Into Darkness proves that art can do more than just observe; it can mediate the unseen experiences of war and provide a visual language for the difficult, ongoing work of reconstruction.
