Ever what Spongebob Squarepant’s evil twin brother looked like?!
If you think you’re just looking at a goofy, brainless cartoon scribble, you’re dead wrong. This banana-gone-bad is symbolic of our society, our collective sub-conscience, a graphic representation of how we all feel today, whether you know it yet or not. Is the banana still confusing you? Okay, so maybe I’m not as good at interpreting smiley faces as the artist, Pablo Mustafa Albilal, who describes the piece above, “this piece highlights the transition from loving sesame street characters, to loving DOOM. So at a time where I had stuffed animals that I slept with, I was also playing Knee-Deep In the Dead, on Ultra-Violence difficulty.”
Whatever it all means at its core, I’m just having fun oogling these fresh, graphic, and uplifting paintings from the series “Horror vs. Terror” and the deeply insightful accompanying artist comments!
“This piece is about being happy even in darkness. Looking towards the future. It reminds me of this scene in spongebob where he is stuck in the middle of nowhere. Very frightened he states: “this isn’t your average everyday darkness… this is… ADVANCED DARKNESS.”
“These are old comics that are dealing with a battle between different species of bugs, juxtaposed with clippings of world maps from an old atlas. Over the top is a wide-eyed smiling face. I’m thinking about how we live in happiness, oblivious to the violence that must continue for us to live in the lap of luxury.”
“This piece is influenced by propaganda posters I encountered on a trip to Lebanon. The architecture; wartorn and bullet-riddled buildings piled upon new buildings fascinated me. All you see is huge portraits of politicians on every corner. The surface of this painting is made like the walls of Lebanon.”
“This piece is made by wheat pasting old superman comics to canvas then painting this smiling friend over the top. It represents a happy mental-state.”
“This friend in the Ernie sweater is experiencing absolute fear at the scene before him.”
If you would like to learn more about this intriguing artist, visit his gallery on brooklynartproject.com!
