Curatorial notes
Davyd Chychkan created this untitled work, with ink, on what looks like a large piece of paper. The artist repeats and overlaps the busts of the figures, almost like an army. I see it as a kind of ghostly repetition, where the artist is conjuring something from the past. The sepia ink gives it a feeling of looking back. The hand-drawn lines are not perfect, not like a photograph, so you get a sense of the artist's hand at work. In the top left corner of the piece, there is a block of text. I don't know what it says, but it becomes another element of the artwork, an additional layer of depth and mystery. It reminds me a little of the drawings of Philip Guston, not so much in style, but in the way that he lets the lines show, embraces imperfections and explores repetition. It is a conversation between artists across time. Ultimately this piece is about ambiguity, offering different perspectives and no easy answers.
