Suprunivka 2008

Pavlo Makov made Suprunivka with mixed media on paper. The first thing that strikes me is the incredible layering – the way it’s built up, almost like sediment, or a memory slowly being revealed. It's a process, a search. Look at how the dark marks hover and accumulate, creating these dense forests or maybe cityscapes – but are they real, or imagined? There's a real physicality to the piece. The paper is stained, aged, and the marks themselves are applied with what looks like charcoal, ink, and maybe even some kind of resist. The overall effect is both fragile and incredibly powerful. Take a look at the little figures, almost like tiny ghosts inhabiting this space. What does it mean to depict these scenes that exist somewhere between history and dream? It reminds me of work by Anselm Kiefer. Makov embraces ambiguity, inviting us to lose ourselves in the layers and find our own way through the dream.