Watchdogs 2009

Pavlo Makov made this drawing called 'Watchdogs', and it's like a map of a half-remembered dream. Look at those marks, like tangled thoughts, layer upon layer. I can imagine Makov, bent over the paper, almost lost in the act, each line a hesitant step into an unknown place. It's like watching a garden grow wild, or a city plan gone awry. You have these repeated shapes of foliage and buildings. Is it a map? A labyrinth? I wonder if he was thinking about control, or the illusion of it, when he was making this. The whole surface feels tense, like he's trying to catch something elusive. But the more you look, the more it escapes. And that, my friend, is painting. Artists are always in conversation with each other; this reminds me of Piranesi's dark vision of architectural prisons. Uncertainty is where the fun begins!