Artist: The Krah
Title: Hell
Thispainting took 4 months to complete, working on it 3 to 4 hours per day, andexcluding all the hours of research involved. Thisinvolved the artist looking into thousands of images of slavery, which was not mostpleasant, and he visited lots of museums to get inspiration such as theDocklands museum in East London.
It is the first of a series of paintings bythe artist focusing on revisiting ancient myths, giving them a contemporarytwist. It is also inspired by old masters such as: HieronymusBosch, William Holgarth and modern lowbrow artists such as Robert Williams,Todd Schorr and many more.
Title: Hell
Thispainting took 4 months to complete, working on it 3 to 4 hours per day, andexcluding all the hours of research involved. Thisinvolved the artist looking into thousands of images of slavery, which was not mostpleasant, and he visited lots of museums to get inspiration such as theDocklands museum in East London.
It is the first of a series of paintings bythe artist focusing on revisiting ancient myths, giving them a contemporarytwist. It is also inspired by old masters such as: HieronymusBosch, William Holgarth and modern lowbrow artists such as Robert Williams,Todd Schorr and many more.
Thispainting illustrates hell. It starts with a depiction of heaven in the top leftcorner, represented as a big office full of angels working on computers whereJesus acts as the boss holding a symbolic baby lamp, firing Adam and Eve fromparadise and throwing them down to hell on earth. Their punishment will be tojoin the infernal mass of enslaved workers, entering the rat race, losing theirimmortality and knowing pain to survive.
Thecentral pyramid symbolises the hierarchical society. On its top, the eye,symbol of the Free Masons, also figuring on US Dollar bills, embodiesconspiracy and the secret societies that are governing the masses. An ATM isfound at the heart of the pyramid, representing modern society’s obsession withmoney.
Underneaththe pyramid, hundreds of slaves are working for the pyramid. They are torturedby cute looking cartoon characters. The artist’s intention is to show in asurreal way that everyone is hypnotized, believing in a illusory democracy thatis just a mask hiding an evil empire, dominated by Mickey Mouse, Mr Burns andScrooge Mc Duck. The artist uses popular culture and cartoon characters to createmetaphors everyone can relate to. Mumra from the ThunderCats as the evil mummyis a humorous statement of the elite few sitting top of the hierarchyexploiting the masses. Images of sex, materialism, mass advertising, mascotlogos and extreme violence are the main focus of the bottom part of thepainting expressing the way the artist sees western civilisation today.
Thejuxtaposition of popular modern culture and references to the Old Masters showsthat whilst the themes exposed in this painting have been visited throughouthistory, each time under a different light, they are firmly linked to thenature of the humanity. The artists shows a world changing and evolving through the use of different technologies,and the advancement of sciences and arts, yet the presence of greedmaterialism, slavery, violence and misery seems to remain intact.
Toview more of the artists work, please visit his web site: www.thekrah.com
Toview more of the artists work, please visit his web site: www.thekrah.com
