Victory over Time. Kingdom of the Absurd by Jonathan Swift 1978

Curator: This pen and ink drawing from 1978 is entitled "Victory over Time. Kingdom of the Absurd by Jonathan Swift" and comes to us from the hand of Oleksandr Aksinin. What are your first impressions? Editor: Initially, I am struck by the incredible density and repetition. The meticulous line work and stark contrast between light and shadow creates an almost hallucinatory effect. There's a palpable sense of order teetering on the brink of chaos, held together by this rigid geometric structure. Curator: It certainly feels like a coded landscape. Look at how those circles and organic shapes create a visual vocabulary. Circles, historically and psychologically, often symbolize cycles, wholeness, and even eternity, suspended over those intricately detailed, almost seed-like forms that propagate upward, giving one a feeling of ascendance. Editor: I’m intrigued by the placement of the square frame within the overall composition. It seems to isolate and contain a section of these bulbous organic shapes, interrupting their upward trajectory, imposing structure. Does it signify an attempt to control or compartmentalize the relentless progression suggested by the circles above and the field below? Curator: That containment can definitely read as an attempt to manage time’s effects. Those repeated seed shapes beneath the frame feel linked to ideas about creation, regeneration and natural rhythms, the ground from which life inevitably springs, which might suggest our attempts to deny entropy, to delay, or manage the consequences of constant change are often futile. It fits with Swift’s satire perfectly. Editor: Indeed, there's something deeply unsettling about this victory over time, if that's truly what it suggests. It’s as if the absurd lies not in time itself but in our human striving to dominate or evade its natural flow. The formal execution, with its calculated patterns and unsettling tonal juxtapositions, absolutely amplifies that underlying anxiety. Curator: Precisely. Ultimately, this drawing is a potent meditation on human ambition and our fraught relationship with the inexorable march of time, as mediated through symbols and repetition. Editor: Yes, I see that too. The composition resonates long after one’s first impression of intricacy fades. I am compelled to consider the darker implications beneath its mesmerizing veneer.