With a cigarette 1991

Curator: Standing before us is Oleg Holosiy’s 1991 charcoal drawing, “With a cigarette.” Editor: The mood hits immediately – the stark monochrome and the almost frantic marks give it an unsettling intensity, a kind of raw emotional exposure. Curator: The expressionistic quality you're picking up on is really tied to Holosiy’s broader artistic practice and the historical context of late Soviet and early post-Soviet Ukraine. Charcoal, as a readily available and relatively inexpensive material, offered a medium for immediate expression during a period of scarcity and rapid societal transformation. It's interesting how economic realities influence artistic choices, isn't it? Editor: Absolutely. But looking at the subject's obscured features, that single cigarette, there's also a commentary about identity in flux. This feels representative of a generation caught between ideologies, struggling to redefine themselves. Holosiy captures a sense of disenfranchisement. What labor and social constraints were Ukrainian artists like Holosiy facing as the Soviet era crumbled? Curator: There was state control over artistic production, limited access to resources and international markets, but then, after the collapse, came economic hardship, a different set of challenges for artists trying to sustain themselves. The fragility of charcoal seems to echo that precariousness. Were there organized collectives providing support for creatives at that time? Editor: Absolutely, but they shifted rapidly and were often politicized themselves. Many artists chose to work outside officially sanctioned structures to explore dissident or politically charged themes related to nationalism, identity, and resistance to oppressive political power structures. But I wonder how Holosiy positioned his role at this crucial political moment in history? Curator: He, and his peers were at the cusp of the transformation of art and society at that moment in Ukraine's modern history. It’s interesting to consider the actual physical act of making this drawing – the pressure applied to the paper, the blending, the smudging. Each mark becomes a trace of the artist’s engagement with a specific material under specific conditions. Editor: Which leads me back to that cigarette. It is such a potent symbol, a sort of smoldering defiance or maybe weary resignation in the face of social upheaval. The entire image almost feels like a fleeting memory, about to disappear. Curator: Well, examining Holosiy’s choice of charcoal allows us to contemplate the material realities behind the creation and social messaging, whereas… Editor: And engaging with its subject, lets us unravel a powerful statement of a people and place existing in flux, that offers space for resistance and ultimately a call for change.