Repetition and the confection of a lunatic-like self-regard permeate much of Pakhomov’s practice. Ya Pakhom! [I, Pakhom] is made up of 16 smaller fibreboard panels encrusted with irregular geometric shapes and unified by a motto in yellow – his name, ludicrously dancing around each frame to the point where signature, and value, become nonsense speech. Pakhomov’s regard for the unsung and the irregular is highlighted in 382 Sins, in which strange blue shapes are framed by a litany of ‘sin’ written 382 times in undulating handwriting recalling the hand-made signs written and held up, like icons, in public spaces by society’s outcasts.

Lupe Nùñez-Fernández