Untitled 2022

Alevtyna Kakhidze made this drawing at an uncertain time in an uncertain place, just using black and red ink. The starkness of the lines against the white paper really gets to me. It feels raw, like an immediate response to a world turned upside down, captured in the contrast between the Ukrainian artist's desperate question – "Will I be alive?" – and the "Westerners" call for unity around a table. I can almost feel Alevtyna searching for a way to express the complexity of the conflict, laying bare the contradictions of human intention in the face of geopolitical madness. The artist uses a visual shorthand, a gesture to convey whole narratives, similar to what artists like William Kentridge do. Except here, it’s not a charcoal drawing but red and black lines that seem as much about questioning as they are about witnessing. It's a reminder of painting's unique capacity to hold a mirror to the world, reflecting back not just what is seen, but what is felt and feared.