Gazing into the Digital Abyss | Inside Out: A Conversation with Pavel Malakhov
- ELSEHERE
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Pavel Malakhov’s work places the human figure on a fragile threshold between the organic and the technological, reality and virtuality, certainty and mystery. As an Art Lead working across multiplatform game development and an independent artist, Malakhov pairs his rigorous classical art education with a deep reflection on how emerging digital spaces reshape our perception of presence and memory. In this text-based interview, he opens up about his belief that visual art operates as a nonverbal "bionic code" capable of conveying raw human emotion where words fail.
ELSEHERE: Looking back, was there an early experience of drawing, looking, or studying the human figure that shaped the way you now think about presence, emotion, and the body in space?
Pavel Malakhov: Yes, of course. Like any person trying to understand the world around them, I always had a strong interest in people, both in their emotional nature and in the physical presence of the body. In my opinion, a human can quite accurately be described as a social animal, and I do not try to separate myself from this definition.
My sense of aesthetics and perception of the human body were strongly shaped by my academic art education. I have a deep love for academic drawing. Communication with other people and reflection on this experience shape my aesthetic understanding of the spiritual side of a person. In general, I would describe myself as a social optimist: I like people, and I believe in humanity.
ELSEHERE: Is there something from that earlier period that still operates in your practice now, not as subject matter, but as discipline, instinct, or way of constructing an image?
Pavel Malakhov: Oh yes. In general, it seems to me that visual art actually has more in common with sports than with a scientific discipline. During the process of learning, studying, and becoming an artist, you literally train your senses, which allow you to recognize beauty and the composition of lines, feel plasticity, and express emotion in a short but strong way. So yes, every work I made before had a big influence on the person and artist I am today.
ELSEHERE: Across your industry work and independent practice, what is the question, pressure, or condition that most consistently organizes your work as an artist?
Pavel Malakhov: The main and original thing for me is the desire to express myself and to be heard. I don’t think there is much more to add to this, both in my professional work, where I create visual art for computer games, and in my independent practice.
Art feels to me like a kind of wastefulness that I gladly allow myself for the chance to enter into dialogue with someone else, maybe with the viewer.
ELSEHERE: In Cliff, what made you trust such a concentrated image: a solitary figure, a blue abyss, and a ground made of digital code?
Pavel Malakhov: It is difficult to point to one specific thing, because it feels like these thoughts are literally in the air. More and more of our lives now consist of processes happening in digital space. This space keeps expanding, becoming more and more complicated, and starts to rise above us like a cliff created in ancient times by some unknown force.
The scale and endlessness of this digital world are already beginning to create a disturbing feeling. Probably that is why I chose this seemingly simple idea as something I wanted to represent.
ELSEHERE: The work places the human figure on a threshold between the organic and the technological, reality and virtuality, certainty and mystery. Do you think of that threshold as psychological, social, spiritual, or specifically technological?
Pavel Malakhov: Definitely, I think it is mostly a spiritual and social question. Technologically, humanity has always moved forward in one way or another, and although progress eventually brought great benefits, at specific moments in time it often also brought suffering to people.
Still, right now this feeling is especially strong. I think humanity is facing serious social changes and a reconsideration of many spiritual foundations. The pace of life itself has changed too much. Everything changes so quickly that life starts demanding too much from a person’s ability to adapt. But despite this, I still hope that we will manage.
ELSEHERE: You write that your work often explores socially relevant themes and aims to engage in dialogue with contemporary society. What kind of dialogue do you feel visual art can still open that more direct forms of public discourse often cannot?
Pavel Malakhov: Well, visual art, just like music, is a form of nonverbal communication. This language has one important quality: it does not speak to specific concepts and things that we can clearly say in our minds or write down on paper, but rather to combinations of images, color, light, and sound that can create emotion. It is a kind of bionic code that people can pass to each other. And I still think that visual art does this quite well.
Pavel Malakhov's Work
About Pavel Malakhov
Pavel Malakhov is an Art Lead working across multiplatform game development, with experience delivering projects for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. He began his formal art education at an early age, later qualifying as a Teacher of Art and Drafting. Alongside his industry work, he develops an independent practice focused on the intersection of traditional art and emerging technologies. His work often explores socially relevant themes and aims to engage in dialogue with contemporary society.
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Artist Statement
We are remarkably fortunate to possess both the body and the imagination. We can exist in the physical world while simultaneously inhabiting the realm of our own created images, merging two dimensions of reality. As long as we have both body and mind, we are privileged users of this universe. In creating these works, I reflected on the unique opportunity that our physical body provides - its singular aesthetics and astonishing beauty, which we sometimes fail to notice - as well as on our ability to operate within the imagined, turning it into tangible forms.
About Inside Out
Inside Out is ELSEHERE’s long-form conversation series, published through STRATUM. It begins from the belief that before artists are understood through category, institution, or medium, they must also be encountered through the deeper structures that shape a practice over time: memory, method, contradiction, relation, and the conditions of life pressing from within the work. This conversation with Pavel Malakhov has been edited from his written responses for publication.
Edited by Yuyang Hu
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