A few days ago I started a new presentation of an art event, a concept called Art Safari. Art Safari is a big art museum, which includes several exhibitions... and which must be seen quickly because I can say it's ephemeral. I mean it's not the same museum, forever. No. It's an extremely interesting museum but each edition only lasts three months.
The previous post, Ondine's Hope and Baraka's Despair... Today about hope, I started it with a question...
"Rightly so, anyone who sees this headline will wonder: Who the hell are Ondine and Baraka? A month ago I would have asked the same question myself. Now I know who they are and I hope you will too at the end of this photo-filled story."
Those who read the above post already know who Ondine is and those who read the current presentation will know who Baraka is.
At first glance, reading the title of the exhibition and appealing to logic, Baraka is a desperate man!
I don't think so. I think he is a painter who knows how to illustrate despair. I hope it shows in the pictures to come...
First of all, I must say that Baraka's exhibition has something that I have never seen in an exhibition before. It has a warning...
The Nymphs&Zombies exhibition is not recommended for people under 18! Read the warnings at the entrance, as some people may find parts of the Exhibition offensive!
These paintings show an apocalyptic and unsettling view of the world. Some gloomy, abandoned house interiors and objects have no place there except in frightening dreams that mix places and objects.
In the first painting, there is a room with a Christian icon on the wall and also a car, a fetish car. This automobile was the only one that was made in communist Romania, it was the majority automobile on the roads and was an obsession of the Romanians of that era.
Probably the painter wanted to bring these symbols, the religion, which was somehow forbidden, and the automobile, which was not forbidden but it was very difficult to get it in that difficult period full of hatred, injustice, and deprivation. I think that this gloomy and abandoned building represents the communism that was the master of Romania for 40 years.
The second painting, with the tombstone in the boat, I think refers to mythology, when the souls of the dead had to cross the river Styx to reach the underworld of the dead. I think metaphorically, this painting is meant to suggest the death of communism.
This painting, again full of religious symbolism... and not too friendly to religion. Crosses and monuments turned upside down. I took the photo with this man, so you can see I didn't accidentally put the picture of the painting upside down. I don't know what to say. I've seen in movies that these upside-down religious objects are satanic symbols. Even vampires rest upside down. I think the message is that once the oppressive period of communism came out, religion didn't feel so good either.
The Dinosaur-headed Man and Darwin's Origin of Species express the painter's opposition to the way religion explains the appearance of life on earth. Both paintings below express an empathy with the animal world and a rejection of man's superiority over other living things.
Once again there is an irreverent interpretation of religious imagery, again out of a desire to show that he does not believe in the religious version of the making of the world.
I don't know what the painter wanted to convey with this painting which is less hideous than the others. The nakedness of this girl may signify the fragility of life...
With this strange being it is even harder to understand the meaning. A human body that looks like a monkey with lots of ears! I don't know what to say. Once again I have to regret that I wasn't careful to photograph separately the title boxes and the few explanations that surely would have helped understanding. This mistake I will not repeat from now on.
Baraka's despair is great. Both literally and figuratively. I mean the exhibition is big, with lots of work and I will need at least one more post which I hope will be done soon.