Anthology of Polish Hauntology

Puapka

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I've decided to made a little showcase of an art project that crashed and burned a little but i had no space to show it anywhere where it would generate interest (at least beyond the images themselves) I was inspired by the writings of Mark Fisher (Capitalism realism, is there o alternative? Ghosts of my life: Writings on depression, Hauntology and Lost futures. and i think i watched a speech about cybertime crisis too) and by Caretakers music (Everywhere at the end of time and Sadly the future no longer is what it was) For those unfamiliar this art is about how we are haunted not just by the past itself but the visions of the future that past offered, and contrast this with current general hopelessness for the future today when we both cant see an alternative to liberalism and all suffer from it. This is also art from 2021-2022 so maybe you'll see traces of COVID related isolation in these as well.
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When i started first idea was to have a picture of typical polish tenement overtook by neon lights of franchise store. I struggled with this lighting a lot and i believe i did not succeed, my control over values has improved dramatically since 2021. I believed the way i drew buildings could give this kind of decrepit feeling i didn't see from many artists, you are free to judge that. The format is around 50x70cm paper and then photo coloured in krita.

Second idea which i was pretty clever at the time was about how the past is distorted to fit the needs of modern propaganda, and lots of historic figures become reduced to sort of "great men" without any meaning beyond the fact that they were great, I'm sure due to globalization you are aware of many examples of such phenomena in united states, or you live there but i could see this playing out in poland. Most famous example has its counterattack from youth culture, once John paul the second has died there has emerged a push to see him as great pole while more and more knowledge of church hiding paedophilia started to see the light of the day. Youth launched a counter attack taking his unfortunately yellow photo and creating many distortions of it, naming him the beast with yellow face, here is an example.
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for this reason i had an idea to distort a different "great historical figure" which under closer inspection becomes very ambiguous
Józef Piłsudzki is known mostly from maintaining polish independence, but he was a socialist and atheist and when first polish president was assassinated he performed a military coup that installed a totalitarian regime which lasted until 1939 when something happened. So i gave him too yellow face
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pretty unsatisfied with this art as well honestly, better than first sketch though
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hitler was on his funereal by the way.

Now for last idea for this project we are going to 2022 when i made series of slightly adjusted images showing commie blocks with a peculiar atmosphere around them. The effect was achieved by putting a tempera made black and white photos in the background, setting them to multiply and filling them with colour. There are seven of them total but to not spam I'm going to just put a link to the backgrounds and variants. After this i just kind of lost interest, stopped having ideas. But poland is still haunting me, perhaps more than even. Thank you for your time, i hope this wont be taken down for being too politically divisive, itd be a shame
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Fascinated to read the background that fomented the imagery. Great work, would love to see you turn your talents to the "bright side".
 
I had never heard of Hauntology so this was an education for me. Your work has a lot of emotion in it. The lighting in the sky and its effect on the building in the last one is very powerful!
 
hopeful. Light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm a staunch opponent of hope, but this was drawn when i wasn't, just looked for it fruitlessly causing myself needless suffering, it was rough. If i found a hope today id try to destroy it.
I had never heard of Hauntology so this was an education for me. Your work has a lot of emotion in it. The lighting in the sky and its effect on the building in the last one is very powerful!
I'm glad the emotion shines through, that's the point of it all isnt it, connecting with others, and teaching people interesting concepts is fun too.
 
I'm a staunch opponent of hope... If i found a hope today id try to destroy it.
You sound like me. :ROFLMAO:

These are fantastic. I FEEL them, and I like art that I can feel something from. Above all, that's what is most important to me. But, technically, it is also very good. It's as good as it needs to be because there's a particular style and charm to it. It has a VOICE. You have a voice.
 
You sound like me. :ROFLMAO:

These are fantastic. I FEEL them, and I like art that I can feel something from. Above all, that's what is most important to me. But, technically, it is also very good. It's as good as it needs to be because there's a particular style and charm to it. It has a VOICE. You have a voice.
You know how it is, it's easy to see mark your individuality leaves on your art as shortcoming and thus not being able to judge 1:1 how well you are doing, i definitely feel i could make these technically better, but im glad they speak to you.
 
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