WEDDING GYPSIES 2016

Babak-Matveev’s *Wedding Gypsies* is a digital print that somehow marries the strange and the familiar in one brightly coloured image. The piece has a kind of “more is more” mentality – the composition is packed with details and the colour palette is maximalist to say the least. I love the way it embraces the unexpected, like the cobra rising up in the foreground, or the way the fake tropical backdrop clashes with the ramshackle attire of the happy couple. It’s the kind of image that shouldn’t work, but somehow does. The overall effect is like a folk art fever dream. It reminds me a little of some of Red Grooms’s installations, in that it creates its own hyper-real world which is both humorous and kind of unsettling at the same time. It embraces a DIY aesthetic but on a grand scale, creating its own unique and unforgettable vision. It reminds me that art can be anything you want it to be, as long as you're willing to take a few risks.