 |
| Razzia by Seb Patane, pressed flowers on found print, 2006 |
This is a picture made by Seb Patane, a friend of mine who happens to be an excellent artist. The name Razzia is German for Police Raid. The scene seems to involve plain-clothes detectives and bystanders in a subway station in Berlin. In the 1970s from the looks of things. Faces have been obscured to protect anonymity (a recurring theme in Seb's work). But the most important detail in the picture is that one guy is transforming into a flurry of flowers. It's so whimsical and unexpected that it seems strange that only the man in the leather jacket seems to notice. Everyone else is so oblivious.
I like the contrast of materials used in this piece; a found picture of a fairly gritty scene* and pressed flowers (mostly associated with grandmothers and love-struck girls). Urban Romanticism.
I wonder why this guy is transforming into flowers? Maybe he's made a great discovery - he's entered into an Enlightenment. Maybe he is crossing over and his essence is leaving his body. Maybe he took a mind-expanding drug (the very reason for the police raid).
Maybe he has a crush on someone like a love-struck schoolgirl.
*I've noticed that most pictures of urban places before the 1990s look gritty in comparison to today. The graininess of the filmstock is apparent and cities themselves look more urban...not as scrubbed up and Disneyfied as today.
No comments:
Post a Comment