Erika Pal_Hungarian Blend

'Hungarian Blend'

by Erika Pal

 

Acid etch and cold enamel on mirror (unique piece).

70x160 cm, framed

 

My image depicts a fantasy scenario, a group of Hungarians having a nice cup of tea in London. It is based on the observation that foreigners often adopt a native habit that they assume can be carried out with ease. As Mikes observed, in England tea drinking is such a ritual. My Hungarian characters are adapting to it, however they look more alien than ever. The art of blending is a complicated process – one local prop only amplifies their continental exotic.

 

I chose five displaced and stylised Hungarian stereotypes: the inventor, the young woman with unnatural red hair, the jolly hussar, and the elderly country couple: Jóska bácsi (Uncle Joe) és Bözsi néni (Auntie Sue).

 

Viewers are invited to position their reflection onto the image to play on the notion that there is a little Hungarian in everyone, there is a piece of the exotic alien in all of us that will never truly blend in.

Done