The Consumption of the Priest 2005

Lubo Kristek made "The Consumption of the Priest" with what looks like thin layers of watercolour or maybe acrylic glazes, it is hard to tell. The colours are wild and otherworldly: purples, reds, yellows. The priest is being eaten, metaphorically, by a mermaid, or perhaps rescued. I am drawn to the eerie figures lurking in the background, all skinny bodies and knowing looks. And up above, a kind of floating landscape where birds become bones. I love the way Kristek lets the paint bleed and drip, embracing the accidental. There's a real sense of letting go, of trusting the process. Look at the way the mermaid’s tail fades into the water. Is it paint, or is it magic? This kind of image-making reminds me of Hilma af Klint, but with a darker, more surreal edge. It's this ambiguity, this willingness to embrace the strange, that makes art so endlessly fascinating.