Nikita Kadan
MNP
In the charcoal drawing, Mir, the word ‘Мир’ (Mir) is written in block letters over a still from a clip posted on Telegram of white phosphorus bombs streaking down over Popasna, a city in eastern Ukraine. In Russian, ‘Мир’ means both ‘peace’ and ‘world’ whereas, in Ukrainian, the word only means ‘peace.’ Kadan spells out that the devil is in the details, as discrepancies like this one have serious implications for those whose existence is at stake. By enmeshing the word with a depiction of a munition decried for causing excessive suffering being deployed by the Russian army on Ukrainian soil, the artist explicates the consequences.
Charol on paper, 2023. (Text: Alex Fisher for Christine König Galerie, 2023)
WE ARE THE PRICE
Charcoal drawing and silkscreen prints, 2022
The edition WE ARE THE PRICE is for sale at Christine König Galerie, Vienna, to support renovating a shelter and school in Transcarpathia for families who lost their homes during the war. Contact: office@christinekoeniggalerie.at
The Shadow on the Ground
“In the middle of March, I started drawing black ploughed soil with a human figure lying on top of it, over and over again. Or, if we look at it another way, a horizontally aligned human silhouette overlaying a picture of soil. The motif is concretised through repetition. It has been repeated dozens of times from March until today. This motif has certainly been inspired by: the image of Ukraine’s “fertile soils”, together with all related colonial connotations; photos of the invaders’ corpses and the famous narrative of sunflower seeds in their pockets*; photos of their victims; makeshift graves in agricultural land plots; trenches turned into mass burials; land pollution caused by the war; tomorrow’s famine; bodies yet to be discovered; the “poisoned landscapes.”** I define the figure overlapping the earth on those drawings as a shadow. While soil absorbs, a shadow stays on the surface. A shadow marks places and times where and when, for the umpteenth time, human life ceases to be the ultimate value. In addition, a shadow cannot be hidden under a layer of earth, concealed or erased in any other way.”
Charcoal on paper, 2022
Cheap Gas Cheap Blood, from the series
"Repeating Speech", 2022
Works from the "Repeating Speech" series depict simple political slogans made after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Each slogan is written several times on one sheet of paper. Writing "Close the sky", "Fuck War", "Stop Putin", "Cheap Gas Cheap Blood", "Russian warship go fuck yourself" and other slogans that were actively used during protests against the Russian invasion turned into a process of endless repetition, turning political speech into an incantation. Verbal protest in time of the ongoing war resembles a magical practice.
Charcoal on paper, 50 x 65 cm