TASH — Crimson Current

TASH is an original abstract graffiti drawing on paper. The word is written in two rows, TA over SH, and the letters are pulled apart into ribbons, hooks and folded planes that run edge to edge across the A3 sheet. The word is still there, but it is not meant to be read at a glance: the eye follows one curve into the next, and the letters surface slowly.

The pencil construction lines are part of the drawing, not traces to be hidden. In some places they are light and transparent; in others the pencil was pressed hard into the paper, so the line stands out clearly. The first searching contours and the final decisions sit side by side on the same sheet.

The colour comes from semi-transparent markers. Violet and yellow-green are laid over one another, so where they cross, the colour changes on the paper itself. The crimson is built up in several layers of marker, which deepens the colour and, in places, sharpens the contours. Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils in many colours, used dry, add soft greys, pinks and pale ochre inside the planes, and ballpoint hatching deepens the shadows along the edges of the forms. Neither marker nor ballpoint can be erased, so every layer stays on record.

There is no single focal point. The ribbons run across the whole sheet, and a few closed forms interrupt them: a red drop in the upper left, a round red form ringed with yellow-green lower down, and a small red spiral near the bottom edge. These are the most saturated spots in the drawing, and the eye keeps returning to them as it moves through the letters. Dense, layered passages alternate with open white paper, which keeps the sheet light. The drawing is dated by hand, 5.03.26, in the lower left.

In graffiti writing, the most complex letter styles push legibility so far that the word turns into abstract form: rhythm and structure come first, reading second. TASH carries that logic onto paper. It is abstract graffiti art meant to be framed and seen up close, where every layer of marker and every line of hatching can be followed stroke by stroke.

A companion to TASH — Hatched Light, Silver Shadow, made the next day on the same logic.

• Artist: Alexander Yashyn
• Year: 2026
• Size: A3 (29.7 x 42 cm / 11.7 x 16.5 inch)
• Medium: Semi-transparent markers, Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils (used dry) and ballpoint pens on 190 g/m² Bristol paper.
• Edition: 1/1
• Authentication: Includes a signed Certificate of Authenticity (COA).