Untitled 2022

This image, made by Alevtyna Kakhidze on February 22nd, 2022, grabs you with its directness. The palette is restrained, almost like a stark monochrome statement punctuated with crimson. I imagine Kakhidze hunched over this work, pen in hand, letting the ink bleed into the paper, creating those thick, decisive lines. Look at how the text dances around the figures! “Russians are searching for Stepan Bandera” it says, amidst other phrases, forming a visual and textual whirlpool that pulls you in. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving, mapping out the contours of faces and words with a kind of urgent precision. It's interesting how the red spots disrupt the overall composition, drawing your eye to those points of tension and symbolizing perhaps a moment of trauma and violence. For me, it speaks to the urgency and immediacy that mark much of contemporary art, echoing conversations and questions through form and content.