Curatorial notes
Curator: This untitled work by Davyd Chychkan, made in 2018, really grabs you, doesn’t it? All those muted greys… I find it profoundly unsettling, in a compelling way. Editor: Absolutely. The limited palette emphasizes the starkness, wouldn't you agree? The charcoal medium seems crucial; the velvety blacks and smoky greys amplify the emotional weight. There's a brutal honesty here, even within the… fragments. Curator: Fragments is right. It's like witnessing the aftermath of something… the broken statues, the disembodied text scrawled above. And are those all statues of women, do you think? It feels almost…defensive. The text seems to talk about workers' rights and capital exploitation... perhaps all this relates to women labour exploitation in society. Editor: Note how Chychkan deliberately destabilizes conventional portraiture. We are used to whole figures presented with confidence. Instead, the drawing deconstructs the conventional presentation of power. Notice how each element—the bust, the full-body fragment, the head—exists in isolation, failing to cohere into a unified, idealized representation. This intentional fracturing creates a powerful visual metaphor. Curator: Visual metaphor… or maybe it's just Davyd poking fun at the old heroic socialist-realist portraits. It kind of smashes all the traditions doesn’t it? It is social realism but with the humour. I see what you mean though, those clean confident portraits hide real lives and here Chychkan's art almost demands empathy and discomfort from the audience. Editor: The composition certainly amplifies that discomfort. Chychkan places the largest, most complete fragment – the dress - off-center, disrupting any sense of balance. That floating text adds another layer. This strategic placement forces the eye to dart around, never finding resolution. He's creating visual tension, not resolving it. Curator: Right, unresolved tension. Like life, no clear beginning and end. Okay, you got me thinking about all the composition and structure here now. Thanks for opening up all the little pieces and for getting the meaning of this piece; without you it would have remained sad broken statue for me, not it screams! Editor: That's the thrill, isn't it? Art persisting beyond its material boundaries, even in fragments.
