Tetiana Lysun

A human head is depicted on a black background, which seems to be levitating in the dense space of dark matter. It does’t have a face, only the shape, part of the neck and ear create the ability to guess an anthropomorphic silhouette. It is divided in half, its subjectivity is blurred.
This technique resonates with the work of the British artist Francis Bacon, whose artistic practice was built on the preparation of corporeality and social images of mass culture.
The work is called "Inverted order" - what is hidden inside were breaks out, bypassing the laws of biology. But this "inner world" is not only about the abstract experiences of human consciousness, but about the real inside of flesh and blood. The artist uses realistic colors that really resemble skin, blood, and entrails, that makes picture natural.
For the viewer the insides cause a feeling of numb horror, although society has long been familiar with anatomy and not so long ago contemplated public executions as entertainment. Behind this is not only empathy for the pain of others, but also the fear of losing integrity. The divided body shell of the head appears empty inside, merging with the general dark wasteland in the background. Deconstruction, as one of the traditional techniques of the postmodern tradition, is not the ultimate goal, but becomes an intermediate stage to the creation of new meanings and forms. The literal perception of emptiness is frightening, but in its symbolism it opens another space, free for new unusual filling.

Before us is a scene of a card game. At the round table sit the players, some of whom have already left the game, it seems that the culmination of the opening of the cards is taking place. The characters are written roughly, as if by a child's hand, but in this carelessness and simplicity something ominous is guessed. The artist also roughly applies paint, sharp broad strokes in the same primitivist manner.
The faces of the characters express different emotions: the neutral look of the man in the hat, the benevolent naive smiles of the others and the ominous grin of the woman. All of them are directed at a girl with red hair, who is sitting with her back to the viewer. They are waiting for what step she will take. Clearly, there is more going on than just a simple card game.
The plot of the picture is a reference to the work of the same name by the expressionist Otto Dix, created in 1920. This picture was painted by Otto Dix after the First World War, depicting the powerful who control the fate of the whole of Europe by playing it at cards. The bloody senseless massacre that claimed and maimed millions of lives was unleashed as a result of the careless policy of the weak in power and contributed to the formation of those terrible phenomena that gave rise to the next world war.
The artist Kateryna Kopelkina creates this work at a time when the political situation in the world is undergoing another crisis and the exacerbation of military conflicts.
We are observing that events of the last century are repeated, at the same time when politicians and elites, like card players, continue the game of their own interests, in the period of new catastrophe.