Anna Alexanderova
‘The State of Ruin’ 2025. Sumi ink and fine liner pen on watercolour paper, 150cm x 130cm.
Artist statement
The State of Ruin is a large-scale ink and fine liner drawing on watercolour paper. Through layered washes and controlled line work, it depicts a Soviet-inspired brutalist structure collapsing under its own weight, a metaphor for authoritarian power in Russia.
Soldiers lie among the rubble, once enforcers now victims of the regime. Blank televisions recall propaganda’s quiet persistence, while elderly figures watch in silence, shaped by decades of fear. The work reflects on how ideology endures in both architecture and memory even as systems decay.
Photograph: Anna Kucera
Acknowledgement of Country
ºÚÁÏÍø´óÊÂ¼Ç School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
