Colours Couldn’t Change Us
2009
Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 91cm
Both form an ongoing series of paintings entitled Colours couldn’t change us:
- In the name of the people, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 91cm
- Bacchanalia or when our world begun, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 91cm
Both paintings are made after two significant, and existent paintings from Croatian history. Both follow similar patterns in terms of composition, style, and in their depiction of celebration and decadence, both dealing with the yet-to-come, either impending disaster, joy, pleasure, and something bound to ‘civilisation’, or lack of. One is Bacchanalia, and the other Croatian National Revival1. The connection between them lies in that they both depict what seems to be forming moment in one nation’s history. There is a clear sense of embedded national pride and the yearning for independence, which, in relation to Bacchanalia is related to free will, and morality. Each one in a very different way depicts certain figures of dignitaries brought together near to the throne of independence.
My interest lies not so much in particular events and figures that are possibly seen as crucial in forming one nation, the focus is however rather to question whether there are, and what might be the intangible elements from our ‘heritage’ that remain unaffected by wars and the transitional periods of various political systems.
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Cultural and political campaign initiated by a group of Croatian intellectuals during the first half of 19th century aimed to create a Croatian national establishment in Austria-Hungary through linguistic and ethnic unity among South Slavs.