PF 1979 1978

In 1979, Oleksandr Aksinin made this artwork, PF. It is like looking at an organism under a microscope, or maybe a pinecone, rendered with a highly detailed, repetitive patterning. You know, I can only imagine what it must have been like for Aksinin to create this—the kind of patience, care, and concentration it takes to build up such intricate marks. I see Aksinin lost in thought as his pen moves slowly over the surface. There’s something meditative about the act of repetition, the almost obsessive quality that takes over, that lets you sink into the materiality of the medium. The surface is built up with infinite tiny dots that seem to expand and contract like the work of Bridget Riley or Victor Vasarely. I see him here in conversation with other makers, driven to create their own version of visual truth. For Aksinin, I think, art was a way to embrace the uncertain, to question fixed meanings, and open new ways of seeing and thinking.