Top of The Crysis 2014

Curator: This oil-on-canvas painting by Sašo Vrabič, completed in 2014, is entitled "Top of The Crysis." What's your immediate reaction to it? Editor: Well, it's undeniably a cityscape, and a disorienting one at that. The viewpoint is so high, so detached, that it feels less like looking at a city and more like surveying a model, the humans miniaturized within it. Curator: Yes, that detachment speaks to something. The artist presents us with this elevated perspective – are we meant to feel powerful? Perhaps detached from the economic and social realities inherent in the 'crisis' of the title? Consider also, the very realistic treatment – reminiscent of, say, Canaletto - and juxtapose that against the suggestion of turmoil, or "Crysis". Editor: I see how the realism clashes. The visual symbols, like the towers themselves, seem to embody aspiration, verticality, almost a reaching for the divine. But there’s also a stark repetition, a grid-like structure that might suggest constraint or control. What historical symbols can be read out of the visual queues of the City? What histories can be interpreted through this dense network? Curator: The ‘tourists’ reinforce this dynamic too. Isolated figures, each capturing their own, limited perspective. Their very posture echoes an internal alienation from the broader society. Is there commentary on tourism? Or social disconnect from contemporary political conditions? Editor: Right! Even the architecture of the rooftop – that grey wall - serves as a symbolic barrier. The sharp angles and the shadow play seem to actively obscure more than they reveal. And I’m not sure, on reflection, I find any real figures that express connection, either with each other or the locale; just disparate observers Curator: Which loops us back to this notion of a 'Crysis'. The piece isn’t just a representation of urban space; it seems to explore this isolation, this fragmentation. It's suggesting the personal within political crisis. Editor: Ultimately it offers, or rather demands that we find, our own narratives and relationships within the city’s vast iconography. It compels introspection on both individual desire and social conditions. Curator: A rather relevant painting that is of continued value during times of crises and the various challenges these bring to society.