The Venice Biennale opens today. We are thinking, in particular, of Ukrainian artist Pavlo Makov, whose installation Fountain of Exhaustion has now arrived safely from Kyiv, following a difficult evacuation, while the artist himself remains in Ukraine. The sculpture, made up of 78 bronze funnels arranged in a pyramid, will take centre stage in the country’s national pavilion, where water will be poured onto the uppermost funnel and left to drip down. “Only a few drops reach the bottom,” explained the pavilion’s curators, “symbolizing exhaustion on a personal and global level”. This expressive pencil drawing, meanwhile, is part of a recent series by the multi-faceted artist “exploring the dynamic of manmade objects and nature”.
