Ever wonder what the inner mechanics of the human mind really look like?
Offering a uniquely comical interpretation is the work of Serbian cut and paste virtuoso Miloš Rajković, better known as Sholim. His ingeniously constructed symphonies of absurdity push the gif format almost beyond its creative limit. Within these cleverly choreographed, animated collages, a sense of perpetual motion becomes key. Exploring his distinct creations, I was filled with a sense of nostalgia for the days when solving the intricate puzzles of ‘the incredible machine’ game filled my days. For there is always method to the madness, a dreamlike way of thinking that binds his universe to a surreal sense of logic.
The funhouse mirror that Milos at times puts in front of us, like with his ‘Join The Army’ series, reveals hidden hypocrisies. Our human behaviour is often put under a loop, for instance when literally compared to the famous Skinner Bird Box experiment. That’s what I find so beautiful about Sholim’s creations, they aren’t just clever gags, but quite insightful explorations of our psyche if one dares to look closer.
A personal favourite is his take on Yasujirõ Ozu’s confessional family drama ‘Tokyo Story’, made for the Nagoya City Art Museum. The artist’s sensibility as a dissector of imagery enables him to beautifully capture some of the essential symbols of the film classic. Under the ticking weight of time, a character reluctantly ‘opens’ her inner world, showing us a fragmented collection of memory and moment. Another of his works, Dream #32, offers a similar puzzle box of the mind, where a ‘Magritte’ like woman, head firmly in the clouds, quietly unfolds like a Russian doll filled with rose petal perfumed tiger fantasies. Or as a last example, the vision of an inner world defined by vanity, cats and shopping in Selfie #1.
Expertly employing all instruments within Adobe's toolbox, Sholim’s work features a constant sense of pushing boundaries in a cheeky study of what makes mankind truly (mal)function.
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