Untitled 2022

Curator: Alevtyna Kakhidze's “Untitled” piece from 2022. It's a mixed-media work, primarily a drawing in pen and what looks like red ink. Editor: My first thought? It's immediate and unsettling. Like a political cartoon scribbled during a particularly anxious dream. Raw, honest, and totally unpolished. Curator: I agree about the rawness. It's almost childlike in its simplicity, yet the themes it tackles—war, patriotism—are incredibly complex and loaded. The juxtaposition is what makes it so arresting. Editor: Absolutely. Kakhidze is using the visual language of a child to deconstruct adult concepts, to lay bare the hypocrisy and inherent violence often hidden within those terms. Note how "Patriotic War" bleeds into a violent depiction. Curator: It's brilliant how she visualizes language. "Patriotic War" becomes a character, of sorts, standing confidently, even as figures around it bleed. The drawing almost dissects the language used to justify conflict. Words as shields and weapons. The artist literally animates abstract concepts into blunt figures with awkward attitudes and unsettling innocence. Editor: Right, and it pulls at the thread of who benefits and who bleeds in such a narrative. Also the smaller figures on the other side almost seem to run from that message of patriotic war, perhaps even trying to change the TV channel on it all together. What is a viewer to do when they are presented with these images? Curator: The figure at the bottom, under “Patriotism is a poison," poses this very same question. The viewer must ask themself, what war are we talking about. Editor: This reminds me of some political theory about visual arguments – how certain images are weaponized for certain agendas. Kakhidze brilliantly captures how these concepts manifest into the every day. Curator: Yes, that interrogation of "to which one?" resonates deeply. She's inviting us to dismantle the rhetoric, to see beyond the slogans and consider the human cost. Editor: So, in the end, it is the viewer themselves that are put to question; and for an "Untitled" piece, that kind of open dialogue feels incredibly intentional. Curator: Yes! A profound provocation, masquerading as a simple doodle. It really burrows into your subconscious.