Can I Change My Career For A Little Fun? (2006 – 2019)
Can I Change My Career for a Little Fun?
2006 – 2009
paintings, drawings
“….If we take the perspective of this scene as our departure point in looking at the new series of paintings Can I change my career for a little fun?, we are instantly struck by a major change in the paradigm that has taken over the past 20 years. In this case, it can be reduced to the following: while it was possible earlier for an advertisement depicting a boy pushing a carrot into the mouth of a little girl to appear without any fear of censorship, this was not the case with a cartoon in which an eye torn out of a small beaver left a slimy trail or an explosion ripped out the intestines of a sweet little squirrel. Nowadays everything has been turned topsy-turvy. The present day sees itself as far less “naïve”. We think that we know much more about ourselves and about children. We are conscious that innocent motifs hide terrible sexual perversions and that the presentation of explicit violence always and only a “show” that, so people think, has no link with reality. As we have pointed out, the paintings of Kaludjerović asks no questions in this regard. What they do primarily is to confront us with the change in the paradigm and with the as yet unexplained relationship between “pretend“ violence and real violence. .
Not one of our views of the universal commercial exploitation of children can remain the same after we have seen the works of Kaludjerović. On the other hand, these paintings are not the result of any didactic intention on the part of the artist. On the contrary, they are themselves deeply enmeshed in a world governed by our inability to play a direct part in it and hence to change it. It is precisely the closeness of these paintings that disturb us.”
excerpt from the text “We might come from Hell but we’re too young to tell…” by Branislav Dimitrijević
Ten Ways_How To Be a Real Man (2007 - 2016)
acrylic and permanent type ink on canvas, 180 x 130 cm
Ten Ways To Be Happy (2007 - 2016)
acrylic and permanent type ink on canvas, 180 x 130 cm
Ten Ways To Be A Conservative Girl (2007 - 2016)
acrylic and permanent type ink on canvas, 180 x 130 cm
Stripe Boy (2009)
acrylic on canvas, 160 x 130 cm
Dot Girl (2009)
acrylic on canvas, 160 x 160 cm
Boy20 (2007)
acrylic on canvas, 160 x 160 cm
Miss60 (2007)
acrylic on canvas, 160 x 160 cm
Cowboy2007 (2007)
acrylic and felt pen on canvas, 160 x 160 cm
Happiness (2007)
acrylic on canvas and aluminium frame box, 541 x 130 x 25 cm (triptych) This work was reenacted in the Ten Ways... series in 2016
Love and Rockets (2007)
acrylic on canvas, 200 x 160 cm
Fire (2007)
acrylic on canvas, 140 x 200 cm
Dior Girl (2006)
acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm
Diesel Boy (2006)
acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm
20Boy (2006)
acrylic and felt pen on canvas, 50 x 50 cm
20Boy eye (2007)
graphite and acrylic on paper, 50 x 50 cm
Bomb Play Girl (2006)
graphite and acrylic on paper, 50 x 50 cm
Tomahawk Boy (2006)
graphite and acrylic on paper, 50 x 50 cm
Woody Boy (2006)
graphite and acrylic on paper, 50 x 50 cm
Sad Girl (2006)
graphite and acrylic on paper, 50 x 50 cm
In my latest series of works Can I Change My Career for a Little Fun? from the cycle The Future Belongs To Us , 2006/2007 (which is consisted of paintings and video works) I combine the images/ visual samples taken, on one hand, from contemporary fashion magazines (e.g. Vogue Bambini), and on the other hand, images from the very violent cartoon „Happy Tree Friends” (taken from the internet).
In this series of works my intention is to confront two unreal entities:
The first one, which represents the desired picture of the expectations of the adults / the society, and through which the child’s right to be what he or she is (impulsive, unpredictable, free), is taken away from him / her. This first entity is than inserted into the scenography of the second / other entity – the one of the cartoon.
My intention is to make one think through the process of increased awareness of the existence of the devious development of the collective consciousness and the patterns of behaviour, which in the present time, more than ever, intensified through violence, confrontation, war.
The phenomenon of violence and fear also interests me as well as the relation of the society towards these categories … what is particularly interesting and horrific at the same time is that violence and fear became a need and a form of entertainment.