Kristyna Fontanive

My illustration is a black and white lithograph where two human-faced cockroaches meet across a chessboard. I chose them as symbols of resilience and adaptation in urban life. One piece seems to dominate, yet victory is only a moment within a cyclical game. The tension between instinctive creatures and the symbolic human act of chess reflects the ambiguity of conflict and strategy. From the cracked chessboard, plants emerge, suggesting life’s persistence. The work envisions the city as a living space of strategies, collisions, and growth, where humans, animals, and plants continuously coexist and transform.