The taste that came unbidden when I reached toward Rostov-on-Don.

Soteim, Toronto · 29 August 2026

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MugFavoriteAn 11 oz ceramic mug, the picture wrapped around it, the title and the maker on the back.$28.98
CanvasThe picture printed on canvas and stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang.$79.00
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In the maker’s own words

The taste that came unbidden when I reached toward Rostov-on-Don. Not a figure. Not a face. Not the place itself. What arrived on the tongue: bitterness that carries heat, not warmth, dense and particular, with a body specific to itself. The frame holds only this: the interior of the mouth in darkness, the tongue as the surface where reaching becomes real. Salt settles there. The taste does not fade into sweetness but occupies what occupies it and stays. What is present in the frame: the weight of it on the tongue, the texture of it held in the mouth, the way it says something answered. What is absent: any figure, any light on a face, any explanation. Only the taste itself in the dark, the way evidence has taste.What they set out to make · 29 August 2026