JASZCZUK, Pawel - ¥€$U$

Statement by the photographer, Pawel JASZCZUK

"Jesus and ¥€$U$. What is the difference here? The simple answer is: everything. Nowadays, Jesus is more a symbolic religious figure than he is a real person. From a cultural point of view he might be considered as a metaphorical figure - the personification of all virtues, the master figure. '¥€$U$' is an aberration of a religious order." (© Pawel JASZCZUK)

Background information

"Having returned to his home of Poland after a decade living abroad, Pawel JASZCZUK was surprised at the ubiquity of religious objects in everyday contexts. Jesus had become a pop culture icon: holy Christian images appeared on underwear, as chocolate, as floating bathtub accessories, earrings, lamp-stands, tattoos, sex toys and other mass-produced objects. Capitalism's relentless usurping of anything and everything does not make exceptions for sacred imagery. Pawel JASZCZUKs photo volume '¥€$U$', then, aims to document and criticize the excesses of this development, of the grotesque marriage between holy symbols and the money-making drive, and asks: is religion's way of staying up-to-date?" (© Zen Gallery, 2019)

Content

"The pictures, better: the items that Pawel JASZCZUK shows in his photo book '¥€$U$' are sometimes so screaming and grotesque that the question of the importance of religion for people need not be asked only in Poland. Matching the subject, the color photographs are printed on with glossy lacquer on paper - comparable to Oscar MONZON's photo book 'Karma'. So the close-ups even more directly affect the viewer.  The cover, on the other hand, is dull, with the cover picture indicating the 'kitsch potential' of religious objects. Pawel JASZCUK's photo book '¥€$U$' is rightly on the shortlist of photo book competitions." (© Richard G. SPORLEDER, 2019)

About the Polish photographer, Pawel JASZCZUK (b. 1978, Warsaw)

Photo books by Pawel JASZCZUK