Sonja Rackensperger

 

On the Grave  - Three Utilitarians

February 2012, VERO DECASIA

Oil on canvas, 120.5 x 141 cm, National Gallery, Olomouc

 

On the Grave - Three utilitarians – A painting created in a century where communism is doomed and individuality is highly praised. The title an apocalyptic oxymoron. The work itself a bittersweet symphony, a melancholic Ravel, composed in a time when everyone shouts out their ‘individual’ feelings on facebook and “I like” defines every second conversation. VERO DECASIA, a talented yet unknown artist created a picture that shows three scary figures from a movie, scary movie characters, in front of Olomouc’ suicide student accommodation. The picture silently screaming: “Oh Brave New world that has such people in it!”

 When asked about her motives concerning On the Grave, DECASIA answered:

“What would our world look like if everyone sacrificed their own identity for the greater good? Would a colourful life still be possible? If humans functioned as they are expected to, would they still be human beings? Or wouldn’t their lifestyle rather resemble the works of Edward Munch? [...] What if there were no individual exercises anymore but rather group activities that are controlled by mass dynamics, and the greater good as an ideal would replace one’s own superego? Where would be the difference between human beings living in big cities and ant colonies?”

But it is not only the criticism on utilitarian values that defines the painting’s character but also the topic of death. People who think DECASIA only created a painting about three weird figures, one with a bleeding heart, one crying tears of blood and one of them struggling with her strawberry days, definitely need to change their point of view! On the Grave - Three Utilitarians not only triggers the ancient human fear of empty, senseless darkness, death and decay, but, containing loads of more motives than already mentioned, is a timeless masterpiece, that soon will make Edward Munch’s “The Scream” look as cheap as onions in the Czech Republic.

 

 

 

Veronika Briatková