Untitled 2022

This untitled drawing by Alevtyna Kakhidze is made with ink on original paper in Kyiv. The artist’s hand moves freely here. It’s almost as though the pen can barely keep up with the speed of her thoughts! I imagine Alevtyna standing over the paper, quickly sketching this figure— maybe it’s Paul B. Preciado—giving the low-down on philosophy, which spurts out as blue zigzags from his back like a set of improvised wings. He gestures towards some ideas for peace talks, his words spilling out as a hand-written call to action, and the image is overlaid with the urgency of the moment. I love how painting or drawing like this can work as a form of embodied expression, especially in times of conflict. Artists speak to each other across time. It is a conversation, never didactic or fixed, and always embracing ambiguity. I imagine the artist’s intention is that the viewer takes something different from it each time.