Facing the Wild Cats 1987

Curator: Standing before us is Erró's 1987 mixed-media print, "Facing the Wild Cats." It presents an immediately arresting combination of figures in vibrant colors. Editor: Yes, it's... chaotic! The composition is incredibly dense, with figures almost bursting out of the frame. I immediately get a sense of energy and perhaps even aggression. The bold outlines and flat colors are striking. Curator: Erró, born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in Iceland, was deeply interested in the interplay between high and low culture, especially in the post-war era. You see his fascination with comics and commercial imagery, clearly commenting on their mass production and dissemination. The technique seems rooted in a printmaking process with overlaid stencils. Editor: Looking at the figure on the left, there’s an overt reference to romance comic heroines – melodramatic and stylized – while the background fills with the classic poses and iconic costumes of the X-Men characters from American superhero comic books. The piece’s overall structure points towards the dynamic tension between these readily identifiable icons of American commerce. Curator: Precisely. By juxtaposing these images, Erró asks us to consider the political implications of the global spread of pop culture and capitalism. He sampled pre-existing imagery rather than creating it himself; the value comes not from "originality," but from the act of appropriation and recontextualization. He treats imagery like any other readily available raw material to build from. Editor: It’s certainly a potent commentary! The flattened picture plane, a key trait in Pop Art, is doing so much work here. Everything is brought to the surface, competing for our attention, highlighting that notion of commodification that you suggest, of leveling high and low cultural signifiers into objects. What the eye snags onto in one moment quickly dissipates amidst the chaos, constantly moving over form and color in what, ultimately, amounts to pure sensation. Curator: A productive chaos, I would argue. The imagery challenges our consumption of globalized media, revealing it to be built of repurposed material – layers and layers that conceal original intention or creation. Editor: Yes, a revelation delivered in bright, unforgettable colours and sharp graphic edges! This truly encapsulates the material impact and social reach of a visual language based in popular imagery.