Pawel Kuczynski is an artist who specialises in the bleeding obvious. His images make you think about the exact statement they make and not much else. The problems of the world are illustrated with such masterful use of irony, visual metaphor, cliché, and literality that you barely need to look at them, because you’ve already seen them in your mind. Inequality, for example is represented by pictures of things that are not equal, a politician talking shit is represented by a picture of politician talking shit, global warming is represented by polar ice melting into the sea and the penguins have nooses around their necks just in case you have only just received sight through miracle surgery yesterday.
But whatever, just share it already because it fits with your progressive values of standing up against injustice, capitalism, and thinking. When you finally figure out that all those Asians dropping presents in chimneys isn’t a racist suggestion that Asians are like elves, but actually means that all your Christmas presents are made in China, or somewhere, you can nod your head and agree that you both are geniuses. Your aptitude for understanding art has proved to be akin to your ability to name a country beginning with the letter ‘e’. HA! “bet you can’t” the post said, but they didn’t count on the genius of visual culture that you are.
Just look at the that guy stuck in his house looking through the Facebook ‘f’ as if it were a periscope, he has no idea how much Facebook prevents him from seeing the real world. Quick, share it before your friends all end up like him! And that ATM as an altar, complete with bible just so we’re clear, will really get up the noses of your religious friends, if they can decipher the image that is.
You GET these works, it makes you feel smart to look at them, and your dumb right-wing friends can just take a dose of the picture of the fat rich mouse using the poor mouse as bait for his cat-chariot. Capitalism is so evil and the best way to let people know is by sharing these pictures so they click on the link and go to the site, ensuring that advertising revenue is raised, and ads have audiences. Wow, art really can change the world.
