I’ve drawn and painted hundreds of animals but I was never really interested in them. Anthropomorphized fauna in fables, cartoons, advertising and subsequently in my art work are depictions of human beings, not animals.
Dear Donald, if you look like a duck, swim like a duck, and quack like a duck, then you probably are a duck. The ravenous carnivore rooster mascot of a fast food eatery devouring deep-fried chicken is not supposed to make you think poultry cannibalism.
An animalier is an artist who specializes in the realistic portrayal of animals. In the 19th century a taste for animal subjects in paintings was very widespread among the middle-classes. After those times the attitude towards animals have changed radically. Our dichotomic relationship with them consist of adoring their cuteness (real or Disneyesque) and their use as raw material for the alimentary industry.
Now I’m drawing animals. I’m a turbo-animaler.
I have cherished an idea for a faunal art project since 2016 when I was heading to the first leg of the Border Field Trip with Serlachius Museums' director Pauli. We were going to the African borders of the European Union and the night before catching the train to Algeciras, where the boats for Morocco set sail, we had dinner (Bugs Bunny in tomato sauce) in a Canarian gastrobar in Madrid and talked about animals. In Pauli’s opinion, our time will be remembered of the way how we treat animals. In the future our actions will be considered faunacidical and condemned like human slavery and holocaust. This is possibly true although my worldview is very anthropocentric. Before thinking of the wellbeing of pandas and spiders, I want to create world where all human beings have their basic needs covered and access to good life. Possibly I’m wrong - isn’t this exactly what nationalist, patriots, racists and other right-wing riffraff thinks of foreigners, immigrants and refugees?
I’ve understood that the idea of animal rights centers in the avoidance of suffering. It’s noteworthy that all manifestos of the animal rights have been composed by humans. It is like women’s right written by men or a movement of people of color led by colorless people. What rights the animals demand? How could they voice their clamor?
Another important question: Could conceptual rights be as important as corporal rights?
If the aliens of the outer space attacked the Earth and enslaved us, what would be worse - eating us or making us alienmorphic cartoon caharacters? Eating human sausages with ketchup or creating monsters half human half martian? I guess I prefer to be a meatball than a pet in an alien family or a mascot of an interplanetary fast-food chain. What is worse - murder or humiliation? What is more valuable - life or dignity?
Should Animal Liberation Front attack Disneyland rather than piggeries?
Why I feel so lousy after the exhibition openings nowadays? When I come back home nothing makes sense and I don’t want to be artist anymore. Late Night Capitalism looks good at Makasiini Contemporary, Turku, and some works were sold including the only big painting exhibited - a capitalist Pinocchio which is one of my best paintings ever. It was placed in a Danish private collection but I understood that a conservative minister wanted it too. My enemies buy my works. Very few intellectuals have enough purchase power and desire to own art.
Now I’ve lost the drive and the inspiration again. I’m afraid that the my art makes no difference and can’t change the world. I’m just thinking about how to sell and provide for my family. I don’t want to be a robot-like professional who just works without thinking. It’s hard to question everything all the time but it’s necessary to keep my practice sharp.
Winter arrives and my badly isolated studio is getting chilly. I've done some good paintings during the fall and now it's time to move to the drawing table in our library room close to the fireplace. Painting is physical work, drawing is thinking. Before the shift I travel to Turku, Finland, next week for my solo show Late Night Capitalism at Makasiini Contemporary. I wrote a text for the exhibition but I'm not sure whether the gallery is going to use it.
Late capitalism exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of totalitarianism. Political power in late capitalist states involves a total rule by the market and an all-encompassing propaganda campaign, which is disseminated through the privately controlled social media marked by mass surveillance and widespread use of brain washing. Academic Roberto Colgate describes late capitalism recognizing no limits to its authority in any sphere of public or private life and extending that authority wherever feasible.