Having the Time of His Life or The Great Escape: Directed and Starring Sadko Hadzihasanovic

Pop Art and Humanism are not likely bedfellows. In fact, the notion of Humanism and Pop Art are, in principal, disproportionately opposed to each other. Within the Pop Art movement glamour and tragedy was pursued within visual images by one of North America's greatest pop art icons, Andy Warhol, and he understood America's fascination with celebrity and social equality. North America's preoccupation, "to escape" within the fictive world produced by Hollywood and mass media hype have been absorbed as an aspect of the American dream. It is here with the opening up of an "untruth" within the work of Canadian artist Sadko Hadzihasanovic is presented, where a "metapicture" a picture about pictures presents the artist's presence. It is also here where the artist is able to reconcile his escape with escapism.

What has been the foundation and underlying narrative of most popular North American adventure films and what we have come to know as "Reality TV" was a larger than life truth for Sadko Hadzihasanovic and his wife Jelica. Theirs is a story of romance, peril and danger. In love and married, he Bosnian and she orthodox Serbian, they were faced with a colossal decision almost two decades ago on their native soil, Yugoslavia. (To stay in Sarajevo or to escape where they would not be persecuted or possibly killed for their religious and cultural upbringing.) In the early 1990's in the middle of Europe's biggest political and internal crisis since World War 11 all sides and ethnic groups were perpetuating some of the most heinous acts of violence and genocide, ultimately resulting in the highest number of civilian casualties. In 1991 the US government were considering sending armed troops into the country to help the victims of this war. Sadko and Jelica managed to escape in April 1992 from Sarajevo by literally stowing away in a cargo plane to Belgrade. A difficult decision for the promising young artist who at the time had approximately 30 solo exhibitions and 100 group exhibitions to his credit within his homeland. Fueled by instinct and self-preservation they managed to enter Canada from Belgrade on February 21, 1993. Their daughter Hanna was born in 1995. As a result, the creative foundation and conceptual premise for Sadko's artistic expression had been fixed as an outcome of this international crisis prompting an escape that brought him to start a new life in a country where escapism is part of the national pastime and actuality.

Intuition is an uncanny "ability" that the artist possesses and which emerges within his work as visual symbols and images. In fact it is a sense that all living things possess that essentially is a natural judgment or perhaps better stated a "primal knowledge". When it materializes for the artist its foundation or "knowing" is underpinned within a social/historical context as well as a physiological and psychological collective. Within Sadko's paintings on wallpaper, in particular the work, Hi My Name is Van Gogh and Jeune Van Gogh, all the trappings, dreams, aspirations and memories of the artist are manifest, exposing and revealing an occidental reality of presence and absence as well as a condition or state of the conscious and unconscious ultimately opening up meanings within meanings. At first glance the images seem quite ordinary perhaps naÔve in image and execution. This is partly due to the simplicity or pairing down of the image which although different within each work represents a young boy, his face lathered up with shaving cream and in the process or about to begin the morning ritual of shaving. Both these images masterfully painted are on wallpaper that would now be considered somewhat outdated, however it is not that difficult to imagine that it had adorned interior rooms of an earlier era and so represents an image of a household, institution or dwelling of affluence or privileged circumstances. Because the wallpaper and their designs are dated with regard to a contemporary North American aesthetic they also make reference to ethnicity.

The patterning on the wallpaper that exists as the painting's substrate is the key to the psychological resonance of these works. Consider for a moment why in the effort to find solace and comfort in our homes wallpaper or other aspects of patterning found on household adornments are considered a decorating preference? At a physiological level the first thing we are introduced to within our mother's womb, that place of sanctuary, is the beat of her heart. This rhythmic pattern is a constant affirmation indelibly instilling psychologically this aesthetic sensibility of trust and reassurance. Within Sadko's paintings the use of wallpaper also makes this sublime inference, perhaps not just to his motherland or family but to a sense of being that we all aspire or want "to be" or "have been"- a place of sanctuary.

This desire for a sense of belonging is certainly well recorded within the life and history of Vincent Van Gogh, not only with his spiritual search but also with his desire for acceptance within his environment/place and his artistic expression. So why or should I say, "isn't it interesting" that Sadko is making direct reference to Van Gogh within the title of these paintings as well as text placed within the work allowing this consideration to be a "principal" or at least a consideration within the presentation? However, there is an underlying sense of irony, perhaps insincerity that lies within his use of the wallpaper, which essentially resides within its design. It is mass-produced and machine made, devoid of the intimacy of touch, it suggests a time and place that is inaccessible and it is at the scrutiny of ridicule for its inability to be current or fashionable. He has placed the work of art in the position of "the other". The psychological drama continues as the principal character within the work is a young boy and although he is much to young to shave he savors and delights in the dream of fulfillment and accomplishment that adulthood will bring.

Nevertheless the gestures of the boy are clearly imitative and aspects of the underdeveloped image of the boy within the painting intimate his lack of ability and experience suggesting that he may be unprepared to meet the expectations that he has defined for himself. Scaring or failure is inevitable or perhaps the North American promise of 15 minutes of fame will be sufficient for him as time moves on? On the other hand, this is the stuff of great drama and films, the North American marketable dream. The climb from rags to riches, from obscurity to fame, the search and attainment of a better life! Time is presented or will be the definitive authority and the conclusion or continuation of this episode will resume, "so stay tuned to see or experience the sequel". The mystique or inscrutability that is proposed within these works and within a majority of Sadko's drawing and painting also subsist within the majority of the Western psyche, and that is "desire".

Through the use of materials and images Sadko Hadzihasanovic ironically and incongruously satires western pop culture with wit, intuition and a diversity of skill within his drawings and paintings. His ability to work within a structure of the fundamental principals of material application while subverting the circumstance of that "pedestal" by placing and contextualizing his humanist imagery and metaphor within the framework of an American Pop genus places him in a unique position in contemporary Canadian art. His perspective and experience is of a Humanist, founded within a life experience and personal history unfamiliar to most western understanding, setting him apart from a majority of Canadian and North American figurative artists.

February 2007

Ted Fullerton

Artist

Head of Fine Art, School of Design and Visual Art, Georgian College