MONIKA K. ADLER Art and Vision written by Ada Cartianu Art has the freedom to be interpreted by everyone in many ways as expression doesn't have a singular statue and can apply in many forms with different distinctions about the creative spirit. But also every creative expression has a particular message beyond the human interpretation, a symbolism of life and death as Alpha and Omega, Ying and Yang, Good and Evil, symbols which we find in every aspect of life as part of the Universe and Nature. Monika K. Adler’s collection has its cardinal points in mysticism, symbolism, rebellion and freedom. The collection is separated into a series of 16 photographs. Beginning with “Universe” and going through “Nothingness”, “Thank God I am a VIP”, “Last Supper”, "Cries and Whispers”, Nocturne”, “Sacred Flesh”, “Children & other rubbish”, “Postcards from Paris”, “I love NYC”, “Teresa is waiting”, “Expire”, “The perfect collection”, “What’s wrong”, “Salut de Paris” and ending with “Travel no End” ; also the collection includes 4 meaningful photographs “Mademoiselle Guillotine”, “Not yet a Pope”, “Death of a Warrior” and “Self - Nude”. Monika K. Adler introduces rebellion in a mystic way of romanticism, dramatism, revolutionary expression of life and human condition. Her collection talks at a very high level about human nature and destruction but, like Albert Camus said once, “the greatest degree of destruction coincides with the greatest degree of affirmation” which in her case, is shown in the expression of human tragedy and beauty as an example of our present days of life. A time of revolutionary thought placed in every rebellious soul who feels the world falling apart but keeping a beauty that still exists in human nature. One of the messages in Monika’s photography is that we can conquer the destruction with a glory of libertinism in a pure expression of the soul, in a innocent but also triumphant contemplation of life in many aspects of living from degradation, love, insurrection, suicide, sexuality, murder, philosophy, ignorance, religion through history and present. Going through the lights and shadows of the mysticism of those collections-series of photographs you find yourself in a carousel of emotions created by the visual content of every photograph which gives an extraordinary meaning of human condition with its barbarity, ignorance and solitary dreamers. Many people can feel offended by the sincerity, brutality, truth, disintegration, humiliation, eloquent authority you can find in these photographs because it is very hard to look in the eyes of truth without being scared of its future consequences on your mind and spirit as a burning from essences. To really understand Monika K. Adler’s art you have to put yourself above the social borders and political thoughts you know as everyday rhetoric, you have to open your mind and see the entire world in a single shot because behind every image is a very deep philosophy with its own arrogance, irony, romanticism, sadness, rebellion for freedom and change. The message is so profound that if you go its way you cry, you rebel, you feel the need of change stronger than ever because the reality expressed in an aesthetic manor it is very cruel in its singularity as a slogan justified by the endless affirmation of injustice made to the world and humans. When God died in Nietzsche’s world left behind the magnificent freedom for human act justification creating the possibility for people to rise above the church, from this point of view, the religious-political message in the picture named “Mademoiselle Guillotine” established the social impact of other cultures that looks antagonistic with the modern societies of the world. The hope of mankind lies in the hands of faith but also humiliation of mankind lies in the divine violence and absurd interpretation of divine justice. And to justify further the religious rebellion denying the institution and suzerainty of a simple person from a philosophical point of view we can refer at the photography “Not yet a Pope” in which we can find a double meaning like: not yet a woman Pope and not yet a human being born to be Pope because even the entitled Pope can be a reason to deny the justice in the world. Behind all her artistic messages Monika K. Adler’s life philosophy wants to improve this justice even if it does it in a scandalous way for attention on the matter because the most useful action for attention in an important endeavor is scandal, without it people are ignorant. Art is the mirror of what we are and what we think, it is also a rebellion in a world of theoretical equality which conceals a great factual inequality. The abuse, perversity, hysteria of human minds can be sometimes so intense in the realm of absurdity that one can find the measure just in art, in a concept which they can reject or be afraid by its exigencies and its truth. Turning every image as a book page, the drama affirms on every level of visual content till it ends in a melodramatic and humorist concept like ”also woman can paint” wrote by a male-artist or in an expression like “God is still alive and love’s you. God is DOG spelled backwards.” The symbolism of blood in the series of “Universe” or “Last Supper”, has a very deep connection with the photographs Monika K. Adler exposes in her entire collection and it’s not just the image of blood that has been spilled which represents the ancient symbol of a great sacrifice to a noble cause - in her case REBELLION for life, beauty, freedom, human rights, and truth, is a noble cause-, but it is the triumphant message written on a wall in its need for profound unity and finality “the soul is the need for the spirit”. As a symbol, blood carries many emotional, social and cultural meanings in which this collection finds itself bound between murder and purity, sacred and profane, deliverance and judgment. The world is falling apart in the need of purity. Also, in early history blood assumed a mysterious, almost sacred aura in human relations, meaning which can be involved and interpreted in Adler’s work in the abstract interaction between Parisian artistic atmosphere (“Postcards from Paris”), arrogant- sexual-ignorant world of the Rich and the deep symbolism of the religious-dramatic concept of a revolutionary Last Supper - all content leads to claim an origin of human relations and abandons. “Thank GOD I am a VIP” is the expression of the highest level of ignorance, the frivolity of an easy living under the power of fame and money, a morality in degradation and absurdity in its manipulation regarding freedom for “I want” and “I’m the boss” which leads in the end of everything to emptiness because under this kind of mentality people are abusing themselves, destroying all what they are, not looking for the meaning of life further than a tag of fame which usually is paid with decadence and vice. The series of photographs named “Children & other rubbish” revolves around indignation against the new wave of concepts and innocence of childhood whose aspects destroyed the real meaning of childhood. Many people can find the images grotesque and without any sense of interpretation than “rubbish” but the reality is completely different, showing the tendencies of degradation and completely-wrong direction of meanings in children. For example the photography which represents a doll injected in the arm despites the virtue of innocence with the sad truth of our societies in which children are likely to abuse the deadly poison of fake happiness named drugs than the true meaning of happiness and freedom of childhood. What captures my attention more deeply is the contrast between the photographs in which two childhood motifs are represented by a very old doll with blue-turquoise eyes and a child face drawn on a gray wall. The children’s toy -the doll- and the children’s game -playing with chalk on a wall- are significant in Monika’s philosophy of revolt because it’s a metaphysical transcendence from the toy to child, from the game to a self-portrait; both images reflecting above the mediocre thought of society, a symbol of truth. Blue is the color of the sky, ocean, sleep, twilight. The ancient Egyptians used “Lapis lazuli” to represent heaven. A pure blue is the color of inspiration, sincerity and spirituality, it symbolizes haven as purity because the color blue signifies truth, hope and Turquoise is the symbol of youth and communication. Besides the drama and the stereotypical model of children represented by the face drawn on the wall, if you look deep into children’s eyes you can find hope, freedom, ability to change, opening. Artists use the color blue to show perspective and this is a good way to understand the energy of the color blue - it allows us to look beyond and increase our perspective outward. Afterwards in this series of photographs the message is very simple in its complex meaning: don’t destroy the childhood meaning with all the garbage and rubbish your kid eats, sees, learns from society, media, internet, fast-food nation, war-news etc; because in the end all what will remain from your child is a gray face on a wall – a dramatic stereotype of the “new world”. “Nocturne” seems to be a revolt in technique, a symbolist clear-obscure romanticism where free minds will destroy old values and denounce the illusion on which they are built, opening another liberation to a free spirited manifestation. The exposure of the nudes in a diffuse ensemble dominates a feeling of timidity, innocence but also gives to the ambient and composition a phantasmal movement by creating a metaphysical appearance of a spirit in a world of shadows. Mystic fervor in a romantic attachment with the background simplicity creating the illusion of another world it’s expressing a symbolism of dream and unreal life. “Salut de Paris” is a series of photographs in which you can find solitude, romance, youth, ageing, hope, everyday life where people of different ages enjoy a moment in time, a moment of eternity in Paris. The series represents a mixture of seconds in everyday attitude and expression of a normal life ‘at’ a coffee/tea in which Adler evokes the simplicity of her own life. “Salut de Paris” is a message of time passing by for every one of us with a particular meaning for everybody but with the same simplicity. “Sacred Flesh” represents a series with a very unique light offered not just by the contrasts but by the composition and structure. Seems like a vision of fire, which can be interpreted as a mixture between purity and sin. Looking for a deeper meaning of this series you find yourself searching for a truth about human sacredness. Symbolism is of profound importance in Monika K. Adler’s photographs especially in the composition of hands exposed in such a dramatic figure of abandon and hope in the middle of the series. Also the photograph which ends the series can symbolize from a perspective the myth of Adam and Eva offering our human connection with the sacred and profane of our nature. “I love NYC” is a series of moments seen and lived by Monika in one of her trips to New York, the city “who never sleeps”. The images give a humoristic stamp to her collection including funny irony of American culture and the need of soul in the Pepsi generation. “I love NYC” also expresses the romanticism of this city who touches the sky and the wonderful freedom and opening which embraces you with its optimistic attitude. New York, it’s a very magnificent place at every level from which an artist with a sensitive heart can create a meaningful philosophy of life and dreams. New York can be a boulevard of broken dreams but it is also the wing of hope and freedom in making them real. “Travel no End” series is her last series from long periods of Life and Art/Travel. It summarizes her and who she is right now. It is a more peaceful representation but with very high expectation from life. Free like a bird the sky’s the limit and life is seen as an adventure in which solitude change in happy moments like marriage, kids, friends or it takes the meaning of a relaxing moment in the sun on the beach and the “Happy End” stands in a romantic image of a couple seating on a bench in Tuileries in Paris. It seems like this collection changes in a way the rebellion and aggressivity of the other series opens a new vision in Monika’s photography but in its profound legacy is still keeping a melancholy of its roots. Life is a long “voyage” in which we carry our own heart, thoughts, memories, dreams, sins, vices e.g. - we carry ourselves in a suitcase from the beginning till the end of our life but until that final moment we all are travelers with our own suitcases and we have no right to say that what we carry it is too heavy even we wear high heels. Just a few of us become birds but it is possible that many of us have the wings in their heart and make the freedom possible but the true freedom comes from rebellion and in this case we have to rebel first and than to find freedom, the true meaning of “our way” in which Monika K. Adler exposes her art and vision. Her final act of rebellion was, in fact, her transcendence from child to woman. Albert Camus once said: “There is no mystery in human creation./ But at least there is no true creation without a secret” and from this thought the beginning of Monika K. Adler’s art itinerary is a big challenge of mind and soul because often the work of a creator is looked upon as a series of isolated testimonies, but the truth is that a profound thought is in a constant state of becoming; it adopts the experience of a life and assumes its shape. Monika K. Adler’s work may seem to be devoid of inter-relations and to a certain degree some pictures seem contradictory, but viewed all together, they resume their natural groupings. They derive their definitive significance and they receive their most obvious light from the very life of their author in a unique vision of reality, philosophy and revolt. “ After all, ironic philosophies produce passionate works. Any thought that abandons unity glorifies diversity! And diversity is the home of art ” . Albert Camus. |
