The figurative charcoal on paper drawings part of the exhibition project “Black Fire” by visual artist Ada Muntean reveal the tenebrous side of today’s decaying society. In a world shattered by war and death, where freedom and privacy are merely a mirage, and helplessness devours judgement, individuals are shaped according to the imposed social rules and conventions, following illusive examples of success, thus supporting the accelerated decadence of everyday life.
The confusion, darkness, corruption, the overwhelming feeling of captivity and despair are highlighted through gestures of struggle and unease or total stillness, as well as through the focus on certain body fragments, often distorted or oddly juxtaposed, expressing the inside burning of the characters, the experience of infernal pain.
We witness the troubling effects of dehumanization, of personal defeat as a permanent burden and downfall of moral values, the loss of innocence and identity, in a powerful image of a society torn apart by its own ignorance, obsessions and depravity. However, fire is also a symbol of purification and it is this significance that revives hope for those who resist the fall.
