Can hope shine through a country that has been ripped apart by war?

An art collective that takes leftover waste from battlefields and turns it into religious art is now being exhibited in Malta.

Icons on Ammo Boxes was created by Ukrainian artists Sonya Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko as a meditation on death, taking real ammunition boxes from the front lines of Ukraine and painting religious icons over them.

Olena Chaplytska, a Ukrainian national living in Malta, told Times of Malta that she met one of the artists behind the project while in Kiev and thought she could help bring more recognition to the work.

The exhibition has travelled to 18 other countries and all of its proceeds go to the Ukrainian charity Wings of Victory, which helps provide medical care to victims of the war and maintains mobile hospitals on the frontlines and in Ukrainian cities.

“When I met them I knew I wanted to do something to help,” Chaplytska said.

“I know I’m not going to the frontlines but this I can do.”

She said she is moved by the symbolism of the work and hopes that it helps other Ukrainians see the light in times of great struggle.

“I think that the work itself is already contrasting life and death. The medium of the ammo boxes from the frontlines and smelling of gunpowder, being transformed into works of art show there are two sides to the same coin, that, in death, we can find the hope to keep living,” she said.

“There’s a saying that in a falling plane there are no atheists and I think that’s true, in times of struggle people turn to God or someone to find hope in and it is the same for Ukrainians.”

“We believe the war will end and we have faith in our victory. Of course, we cannot do it by ourselves and are immensely grateful for any help we can get.”

Chaplytska said that it is even more meaningful that the exhibition, which includes an icon of St Nicholas, is opening on the saint’s feast day and in a church dedicated to him.

“Traditionally, Ukrainian children find presents under their bed on the feast of St Nicholas,” she said. “My greatest wish is that children remain preoccupied by what St Nicholas is bringing them and not hoping that their house isn’t hit by a missile or that their parents survive the war.”

She hopes that the exhibition will remind people that there is still a lot of life left to fight for in Ukraine and that its people are still trying to thrive despite adversity.

“Every war comes to an end eventually but the price that we pay for it gets higher day by day,” Chaplytska continued.

“But if people see this and can see that there is still a light, still goodness worth fighting for, then we would have achieved something wonderful.”

Since starting in 2014, the project has raised over $600,000 for charities that provide medical care to Ukrainian veterans and civilians.

Icons on Ammo Boxes opened yesterday and will run until January 7 at St Nicholas church in Merchants Street, Valletta.

It will be open on Saturdays from 5.30pm to 7pm and on Sundays from 9am to noon.