Untitled 2022

Editor: Here we have an untitled ink and pen drawing on paper by Alevtyna Kakhidze from 2022. It feels very direct, almost like a political cartoon. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a powerful indictment of collective versus individual responsibility, using symbolic figures rooted in a longer tradition of politically-charged graphics. The figures, faceless with blackened heads, remind me of shadow puppets, suggesting a performance or manipulation. Note how one clutches a blood-red tie—a clear mark of culpability—while the other seems to wash their hands, a loaded biblical reference suggesting denial. Editor: The text seems crucial too, especially the phrase “so-called Russian avant-garde.” Curator: Precisely. Kakhidze evokes the legacy of the Russian avant-garde – think Malevich or Rodchenko – artists who initially embraced revolutionary ideals. But she questions if that revolutionary spirit has been betrayed, used as a smokescreen while horrors unfold. By linking this historical avant-garde to contemporary culpability, she forces us to consider how cultural movements can be complicit through silence or inaction. The “placing” of responsibility onto Putin alone becomes bitterly ironic. Who bears witness? Editor: That’s a really interesting way of framing it. I initially saw it as very immediate and of-the-moment, but you’re placing it within a much larger cultural and historical context. Curator: The immediacy is intentional. The scrawled text and stark imagery convey urgency, mirroring the constant stream of information we receive about the war. But that raw immediacy is sharpened by the weight of history, by the visual echoes of past artistic movements used, or rather, misused, to justify present actions. What do you take away from this now? Editor: I’m left considering how symbols and artistic traditions can be weaponized, and the artist's responsibility to challenge those narratives.