Transport Is being adjusted 2013

Curator: "Transport Is Being Adjusted," painted in 2013 by Alexander Roitburd. It’s an oil painting combining elements of portraiture and landscape, rendered in a Modernist style. What’s your first reaction? Editor: Well, it's definitely striking! A disquieting and surreal blend of machinery, the human form, and… is that an eagle’s head? It's provocative, to say the least. Curator: Indeed. The eagle head is key. Throughout history, the eagle is a symbol of power, of vision, of sovereignty. Roitburd gives us an imposing figure. Editor: But then juxtapose that symbol of power with the naked human body, caught in a moment of… vulnerability? The eagle's head atop the naked female form throws into sharp relief power, vulnerability and maybe sexuality. Also, is that steam engine referencing industrial-era anxieties about human connection and productivity? Curator: Possibly. Roitburd layers potent imagery. Trains, of course, can symbolize progress but here, looming and somewhat menacing, it complicates that narrative. Trains are about movement and industry, yes, but in certain contexts it means about forced migrations and a totalitarian states that we witnessed in the 20th century. Editor: That is precisely the tension that holds me captive here! A figure so exposed stands, perhaps defiantly, but exposed nonetheless, next to the might of the machine. Is the human subjugated or resisting, I am uncertain which? Curator: The ambiguousness may be the point, creating an evocative dialogue about the very nature of control, about who has it and at whose expense it’s yielded. There are a multitude of psychological undercurrents, about what freedom might signify or signify no longer. The overall strangeness underscores how little some symbols resemble their previous iteration as we continue to layer more contexts of meaning onto it. Editor: It seems, this potent combination certainly opens up room to unpack those anxieties further, especially in post-Soviet space and discourses of transitional history in which, in my reading, the symbol is rooted. Curator: I completely concur. Thank you for assisting me. I hope it gives our audience ample food for thought to carry along through the rest of the collection. Editor: An absolutely rewarding image for interpretation!