Curatorial notes
Davyd Chychkan made this watercolour, In Quarantine, during the pandemic. There's an interesting interplay of textures here. The rendering is quite smooth, almost like a digital illustration, but the subject matter is very tactile. Take, for instance, the radiator. It begins with a tight, formal structure but devolves into a tangle of looping pipes. They're weighty and real, contrasting with the flatness of the patterned window. That radiator seems to want to escape, maybe like the artist did, through the act of creation. Its form is ambiguous. Is it organic or mechanical? It's these tensions that make the piece so engaging. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston's later, more cartoonish works; that same exploration of form and meaning, and the unsettling feeling that comes with it. There's no single answer here, just a visual invitation to explore the complexities of our locked down existence.
