Stelios Faitakis’s first solo exhibition is a graphic illustration of the Day of Deliverance rendered, appropriately enough, with elements borrowed from the visual language of Mexican muralism and a close relative, graffiti. What is less expected, however, is the marriage of these urban-culture elements with the religious vocabulary of the Byzantine tradition.
The theme is set by Occupational Hazard (all works 2008), the site-specific mural that adorns an entire wall of the gallery. Here, contemporary martyrlike figures—complete with halos—occupy a distorted perspectival space. Flying bodies announce that the Day of Judgment has come, when, in the words of Lacksley Castell’s song used for the show’s title, “our children shall be free.” Smaller in size, and reminiscent of portable icons of the Orthodox tradition, Dream and The Non-sleeping Beauty follow in the same revolutionary spirit. The former depicts the coming of a rather proletarian Messiah, accompanied by the sounds of a drum and an electric guitar played by angels. The latter focuses on the menacing figure of Justice, whose sleep has finally been disturbed by inequity and corruption. Faitakis’s painting is packed with symbolism, both culturally acknowledged and personal. Seductive and disturbing, his work dips into tradition, only to come out confident as ever that first day of revolution will be a great day indeed.
