The work Background by Anna Zvyagintseva consists of two parts: two sheets of paper densely covered with pencil drawings and a video. On one of the sheets, the artist creates the pattern of the field, which is a continuous repetition of two lines, two edges of the grass coupling on top of the blade. The second sheet presents everything that appears in mind when the artist thinks about what the grass can hide, what can be behind it, inside of it, or between it: a pit, dirt, a tooth, dried leaves, iron, or something obscure.
The pattern appears subconsciously on paper during a meticulous and meditative process of drawing from memories and imagination. In such a way, the artist reacts to the violence of reality by therapeutically operating with an automatic skill of drawing which she is usually using in her artistic practice. The silent video presents a point of view from the inside of the character: the visitor can see the same pattern of intertwined blades of grass through long and slow blinking.
The original title of the work in Ukrainian sounds like ‘Zapillia’, and apart from being translated as ‘Background’, also literally means ‘behind the field’ and can be used as a military term meaning ‘behind the battlefield’. 
Text by Valeria Schiller