Dragan Saric – THE LOCKDOWN
In our midst an epidemic. The solidation in our hearts materialised. Isolated, we have become mere spectators of our own creation. Empty streets, our minds full. Gazing upon the past and the world around us. Whatever we have done, still, nature takes it’s course. Now our world flashes before our eyes. Fear creeps in. To some, an awakening. Are we going to keep staring into the distance or is it time to act.
THE LOCKDOWN HASN’T CHANGED US
In ‘‘THE LOCKDOWN’’ I portray a diversion on Guy Debord’s society of the spectacle (1967) in which we live in a society which has in turn become separated from what is real. This philosophical and perhaps critical theory proposes that we live inside an interpretation of the real world which has ultimately become our reality; “a world vision that has become objectified” as Debord puts it. The spectacle was born out of a simplified image of the real world, which grew to become the construct we all adhere to. It is a worldview where commodity is fetishised and favoured above truth. The spectacle is therefore not about things true and real anymore, and thus we care merely about the representation of the former. Because of this we have unknowingly alienated men from each other, dominated nature and turned us into mere spectators of it all. In time, we have come to see only the veil that covers the essence. I think, in a time where the coronavirus is an issue, we can see this spectacle has clearly materialised – we have been given a rare opportunity to become aware of the thing which hides from itself. Trough an interplay of imagery i aim to create awareness on the spectacle to, in turn, pose to be it’s direct criticism. The lockdown hasn’t changed us.
About
Dragan Saric is an Utrecht based artist with a background in Sociology. Coming from a politically complicated slavic background and upbringing in the Netherlands he’s ordinarily found himself confused and balkanised in a foreign world, often to be found staring into the distance. This experience has been the main source of his natural intrest in human behaviour, society, and it’s philosophies by which he aims to express it’s underlying social structures trough photographic means. His work indefinitely expresses the mystic behind a banal everyday reality trough the eye of the lonely observer who is separated, yet part of the whole. He therefore does not intentionally compose his photographs, as he claims our reality encompasses an already overcomplex composition. He exclaims: “When it calls me, i merely press the shutter”.
If you want to support the artist high quality prints are available for purchase:
Print 1: https://kiekie-art.com/products/dragan-saric-humanity
Print 2: https://kiekie-art.com/products/kopie-van-dragan-saric-humanity