Exlibris of Nadiya Ponomarenko 1978

Editor: Here we have Oleksandr Aksinin's 1978 etching, "Exlibris of Nadiya Ponomarenko". It's quite intricate! I'm immediately drawn to the almost dreamlike, surreal quality... What stands out to you the most? Curator: Considering this etching's production in 1978, behind the Iron Curtain, it's impossible to ignore the social and material constraints Aksinin was navigating. The use of etching itself speaks to an accessibility of materials and perhaps a desire to disseminate ideas in a way mass production wouldn't allow. How does this handmade quality impact our reading of the imagery? Editor: I hadn’t thought about it that way. The etching seems to invite close looking because of its textures. The limitations may have pushed the artist toward creative, textural detail that digital work often lacks. Curator: Exactly. And look closer at the composition - a figure peering out of what looks like a window, juxtaposed with a geometric structure below. Consider what materials and spaces are being depicted here? The lines of the buildings, alongside more personal icons – does this juxtaposition suggest something about private versus public space in Soviet society at the time? Editor: So, the windows could represent boundaries... or access? The building form is interesting, too... industrial almost. How do the physical processes that created this piece enhance or contradict this feeling? Curator: Think about the labour involved in etching – the precise, repetitive actions required to create this image on a copper plate, and then to print it. It directly contrasts with the dehumanizing effect of mass industrialisation. The very act of creating this, then, becomes a statement against it. Editor: It's a way of reclaiming craft and labor. Seeing it in that light shifts the mood of the artwork for me. Curator: Precisely. By foregrounding material processes, artists can highlight issues of labor, commodification, and control that are woven into the fabric of society. Editor: I'll definitely think about materiality differently from now on!