Intaglio

Between 2009 and 2011, I created a graphic cycle devoted to the sky and human condition, spanning eight colourful large-scale artworks. All of them were made using the intaglio techniques: etching, aquatint, drypoint, vernis mou, and photo-aquatint.

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Since time immemorial, people have looked upwards with awe, hope, and love as well as fear, worry, and terror. The image of the sky was a result of constant manoeuvres between fact and fiction. The dreams of defeating their own humanity, the integral need for exploration, the quest for glory and posthumous memory have always drawn humans heavenwards. But along with the scientific progress the bar has been raised as well, and the goals have not always been pure. The rivalry for domination, the pursuit of power no matter the costs, the political and social issues are the dark side of humanity’s expansion towards the sky.

I decided to build my artworks on photographs which I manipulate. This drives me straight to figurativism, which, in my opinion, grows from the tradition of painting existing in public opinion. In my case, figurativism is paired with narration. Connecting happenings to form the cause/effect sequences is an integral part of human life, the element which determines cognition, hence my inclination for fictionalisation. By juxtaposing distant elements, I am able to arrange a situation that works on the connotation level and moves the viewers’ imagination.