Apotheosis of Travel. Kingdom of the Absurd by Jonathan Swift 1978

Oleksandr Aksinin made this etching called 'Apotheosis of Travel. Kingdom of the Absurd,' inspired by Jonathan Swift. It has this beautiful, intricate quality that etching allows. It's all in shades of green, and if you look closely, you can see how Aksinin built up the tones with these tiny, precise marks. It’s incredibly detailed and, in a way, obsessive. The top half has this radiating structure, almost like a strange sun with tear drops hanging off it, while the bottom is a crazy, labyrinthine city. The two halves are connected, somehow, which gives the whole piece a feeling of both order and chaos. It reminds me a bit of Piranesi’s architectural fantasies, but with a darker, more surreal edge. Both artists share this vision of art being an ongoing conversation, where one image leads to another, and meaning is never fixed.