Untitled 2022

Curator: Here we have Alevtyna Kakhidze's "Untitled" drawing from 2022, rendered in ink on paper. At first glance, what resonates with you? Editor: It feels raw, like a captured thought, almost scribbled. The stark white lines on the dark background create this sense of immediacy, you know? A secret, illuminated. Curator: The work indeed evokes the intimacy of a personal sketchbook. Kakhidze's visual language, in many ways, participates in a long tradition of artists using text and image together to construct narratives about identity and power. The graffiti art style pushes this interrogation, and might be a reflection of sociopolitical context around Ukrainian identity in 2022. What do you read here? Editor: I get this immediate sense of… longing? Maybe even boredom. The figure lying down, perhaps Lenin given the lettering below. It’s like he’s disconnected from whatever is beaming down at him from above. Perhaps poetry isn’t the opiate after all. Curator: Exactly, Lenin's position is passive, almost melancholic. And the words…can you make them out? The ghost-like form above, maybe a reference to Pushkin or some sort of "Russian spirit," contrasts to the modern figure of Lenin sprawled below. Note, too, the phrase to the lower right of Lenin that is translated as, ‘Lenin got bored without poetry.’ Editor: Ha! I love that, bored without poetry. That's totally going to be my next existential crisis mantra. The contrast, right? You have this grand figure, Lenin, leader of the revolution, reduced to a state of ennui without art. Curator: Kakhidze creates a potent visual metaphor for ideological exhaustion. This could serve as commentary on the collapsing metanarratives and hollow promises often associated with political systems, speaking to broader themes of disillusionment within post-Soviet societies and, perhaps, of the unfulfilled desire for spiritual and creative fulfillment even amidst radical political change. Editor: See, I just think it’s wickedly funny! The kind of gallows humor you only get when things are properly messed up. It is so strange, beautiful and tragic all at once, don't you think? A little ink doodle can cut so deep! Curator: Absolutely. It's through that precise blending of levity and critique that Kakhidze invites us to confront complex socio-political realities, allowing room for hope. Editor: In the end, perhaps it really all comes down to, even a Lenin needs a good sonnet every now and then. Thank you.