Untitled 2022

Alevtyna Kakhidze made this piece on a spiral bound notepad with a black marker and red pen sometime in March 2022. The text itself looks a bit like an unfurling scroll; a cascade of thought captured directly on the page. I’m drawn to the red. It interrupts the flow, disrupting the otherwise ordered rows of text. Look at the word ‘Last’ at the top. The color lends a sense of urgency and, of course, acts as a visual indicator of the date scrawled at the bottom, sealing the work in its time. The phrase 'till we have Ukrainians' is particularly poignant, rendered in this same red, as if underlining its importance. It highlights both a sense of ongoing presence and endurance. Kakhidze's work reminds me of the art of Hanne Darboven, who used repetitive, systematic mark-making to record time. But where Darboven's work is cool and methodical, Kakhidze’s is raw, emotive, and deeply personal. Art making is never finished, and each generation of artists responds to what came before.