'Empire At War'

Download Release

November 2nd - December 23rd, 2006

Daneyal Mahmood Gallery is pleased to present large-scale drawings by Andrei Molodkin.

“The hypocrisy of the slogan "Support our troops" yields a comparison with ballpoint pens issued to a former soldier Andrei Molodkin to produce his drawings and paintings. On the one hand, the repeatedly renewed process of using these dispensable tools is linked to the iconography of death. The other idea is about the continuation of the line of ballpoint pens, in the sense that the used-up set (the dead) is immediately replaced with a new generation. Each of them is destined to fight and work obsessively at any price, until the last drop of ink-blood. The end of this process is "the end of civilization," or (as they say nowadays) "the end of history." Therefore, the images of "sweet crude leaders" (sweet crude commander-in-chief, etc.), responsible for turning the ballpoint pen allegory into reality, serves as a symbol of that finale.” (Victor Tupitsyn)