Untitled 2017

Curator: Up next, we have a piece simply titled "Untitled" created in 2017 by EtchingRoom1, employing ink and drawing on paper. It strikes me as an unusual cityscape, or rather, a study of urban form. Editor: The first thing I notice is the obsessive quality of the line work, like a draftsman meticulously recording details. It also appears deliberately unfinished, almost a series of layered sketches that emphasize process and revealing its material construction. Curator: Absolutely. Looking at the style, there’s a definite nod to modernism, maybe even brutalism in the building’s rigid, repetitive façade. These are forms often linked to utopian or dystopian social engineering of the 20th century, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union and the transition into more private modes of accumulation. Editor: It definitely echoes that era. The hand-drawn quality is key though—the visible labor contrasts starkly with the cold, machine-made aesthetic usually associated with that type of architecture. This feels more personal, an almost humanizing effort to engage with, rather than to simply replicate it. Curator: Interesting. You see the scribbles and notes surrounding the central building, which look like annotations— perhaps hinting at a broader political narrative, notes scrawled amidst the documentation of everyday architecture, or the design itself representing some kind of social program. Editor: The presence of paper also intrigues me— its texture and physical reality is essential, which then forces one to examine the physical action required to even produce this image. We might ask about access to paper or materials, about how this sort of "art" object survives amid real world events and urban space. Curator: I appreciate how you point to its context as a produced thing, tied to material realities of production. In my view, the drawing opens conversations around architecture as both a built form and a symbol of socio-political ideals. Editor: Yes, and those ideals are always grounded in labor and material. The act of creating this drawing asks us to reflect on these foundations, to think about who benefits, what's used and what's wasted. It's deceptively simple, really powerful stuff. Curator: I concur. A fascinating work. Editor: Agreed. Food for thought, indeed.