Tablecloth XII 2015

Curator: So, here we have Pavlo Makov's "Tablecloth XII" from 2015, a beautiful etching printed on paper. What's grabbing your attention first? Editor: There's something unsettling yet familiar about it. Like finding the architectural plans of a mundane apocalypse on a dishrag. The repetition of these geometric forms, alongside the forks, makes me feel like I'm staring into the blueprint for some future domestic dystopia. Curator: I find that observation fascinating! My immediate reaction was much more playful. I imagined a somewhat surrealist dinner party where the table setting has evolved beyond all recognition! I find it curious and slightly humorous. It's almost like looking at some strange, coded message left behind. Editor: Interesting how we have such different readings! Thinking of dystopias, consider the table itself: traditionally a place of community, sustenance, and sharing, a kind of domestic altar. Makov throws a wrench in that system. This distorted layout, punctuated by starkly rendered forks, evokes systems of control, rationing, and potentially a lack of true communion. It makes you think about food scarcity, distribution of wealth, and controlled feeding, right? Curator: I cannot say I fully disagree, as I start to perceive something a bit more serious in this tablecloth’s message... But then again, there’s this beautifully rendered texture to the etching itself—almost like looking at weathered fabric under a microscope. Even with such heavy thematic implications that you raise, the care for artistic detail is impressive. What do you think Makov wanted to represent here? Editor: The contrast between the apparent simplicity and the layered interpretations might be precisely the point. I reckon Makov invites us to question the structures and the meaning we assign to our everyday spaces. To reflect on who gets a seat at the table and how that is organized and controlled in increasingly fractured societies. Curator: Hmmm... I see your point of view more clearly now, I did not give much thought to those implications at first. Well, either way, thanks to you this print evokes way more reflections and meanings now, than the ones I initially pictured. Editor: That's the power of a great work, isn't it? To hold multiple truths and reflect them back to us in unexpected ways, I think this is an important artwork and it stays in my mind.