It's a pity - not a pity 1991

Editor: We are looking at Oleg Holosiy’s mixed-media piece, "It's a pity - not a pity," from 1991. I'm immediately struck by the raw emotion conveyed in this somewhat distorted, monumental face. What cultural or psychological ideas do you find embodied in this portrait? Curator: It's interesting you use the word monumental. Indeed, the face looms, almost like a ভেঙে যাওয়া idol, no? Holosiy was working during a period of tremendous upheaval, the collapse of the Soviet Union. The face becomes a palimpsest for cultural anxieties and shifting identities. Editor: A palimpsest? How so? Curator: Look at the layering of paint, the visible marks. These aren't just aesthetic choices. They speak to the erasure and re-emergence of histories, the rewriting of personal and collective narratives. Consider how portraiture traditionally functioned – to immortalize power. Is that happening here? Editor: Not really. The sadness and the…disintegration, perhaps? The title "It's a pity - not a pity", makes it sound like an argument, but in its case: against the subject. Curator: Precisely! The eyes, despite the distortions, are intensely expressive, mournful almost, suggesting loss. Is the "pity" directed outward, at the world in transition, or inward, at the individual struggling to find their place within it? Perhaps both. And what continuities might there be with the long tradition of lamentation in visual and literary culture? Editor: This has definitely given me a new perspective on how to consider an artwork not just as a beautiful or skillful image but as an object loaded with historical and personal meaning. Thank you. Curator: A fruitful contemplation on cultural and artistic shifts; food for further thought, indeed!