The Story of the Xanthus, Drink Up The Sea collage paintings goes back to Aesop, a slave living in 6th century BCE. Many of us recognize him as a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a 600+ fables and most of us associate him with a few children’s book stories, which mostly are, actually, re-told by modern authors. However, to me, Aesop’s influence is much more significant and powerful than just stories about a hare and a turtle or about a lion and a mouse.

Aesop was a slave and Xanthus was his master. Xanthus, a philosopher himself, enjoyed having conversations with Aesop and trusted him. Once, Xanthus got very drunk in front of his students and friends. He was trying to demonstrate that human possibilities are endless but went too far in his philosophy and promised to drink up the sea to prove it. The deal was, If he failed, he would lose all his possessions, estate, wife and money. Needless to say in the morning he regretted his promise.

Being trapped, he asked for advice from Aesop, who gave him a life-saving answer. Aesop told to say, that Xanthus was going to drink the sea, but the sea only, without any rivers and other waters flowing into it. When the crowd separates the seawater from everything else, he would drink up the sea. Smart answer that brought the deal to an end.

However,  that was not the end of this story. Years later, Aesop got his freedom but years later got arrested and sentenced to death. Xanthus who was a very respected person came to rescue him, but to make it happen Aesop had to become his slave again. And Aesop answered to his ex-master “Drink up the sea, Xanthus”. He was not willing to trade his freedom for life. So, the phrase “drink up the sea” describes two situations: when the impossible gets possible and when possible gets impossible. 

My collage refers to the second part of the story, describing people whose freedom is stronger than regimes, life, or death.

I placed on the background of the collage the lyrics from the Freedom song by Yuri Shevchuk (DDT band). This song was released in 2011.

The top row of the characters shows the freedom fighters: A. Sakharov (Nobel Peace Prize laureate), B. Nemtsov (opposition politician, killed) and V. Novodvorskaya (a dissident and a liberal politician).

Current political imprisoners, including A. Navalny, go next. Then, to the right,  a cultural layer goes L. Akhedzhakova (an actress), Y. Shevchuk (a rock musician), and B.G. (“founding fathers” of Russian rock music).