He`s my property.
He’s My Property
examines the moment when authority stops seeing a human being and begins seeing an object.
The work presents violence through the language of a child. The son does not hate the soldier. He does not even believe he is being cruel. His logic is simpler—and therefore more disturbing: the soldier belongs to him, so obedience is expected and punishment is justified.
The toy soldier becomes a metaphor for the individual inside systems of power. Governments, armies, institutions, ideologies, and even societies can speak of people in similar terms: my soldier, my citizen, my subordinate, my resource. Possession may not be stated openly, yet it appears whenever a human life is valued primarily for its obedience and usefulness.
The father’s questions represent the moral world we believe we inhabit. The son’s final answer exposes another one:
“Because he’s my property.”
The work asks where the boundary lies between command and ownership. If a person is expected to obey regardless of conscience, fear, suffering, or choice, is he still being treated as a person—or has he already become property?
The hanging toy makes this contradiction physical. It is literally an object that can be owned, moved, punished, or discarded. But it represents someone who cannot be.
A soldier may belong to an army.
A human being belongs to no one.
Title: He’s My Property.
Year: 2026
Series: War Series / Existential
Medium: Acrylic paint and archival pigment ink on paper
Dimensions: 10 × 15 cm; framed: 12.8 × 17.8 × 1 cm
Edition: Unique (1/1)
Condition: Fine
Certificate: This artwork is accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity and permanently documented in the Viktor Karpenko Artwork Archive.
Archive Number: VK-0031-0026
Status: 🟢 Available