PROJECT
Phantoms of Empire
That trip to Hungary made me think about myself, my relatives and friends — after all, we can all relate to that, right?
“Phantoms of the Empire” is a series of mixed media works inspired by my trip to Hungary and Austria. I immersed myself in the history and culture of the former empire, explored its art, architecture, and food which led to a series of sketches. Still in Budapest, I began to notice the connection between empires through the centuries: an empire is not human-centric — it is all about grandiosity, gold and glitter, ruined lives, power, influence and intervention, the role of religion in politics... and wars, endless wars.
Empires rise and fall and when they fall, all that is left are shattered dreams of ordinary people. People who witnessed the empire crumble suffer from phantom pains and memory distortion as they engage in nostalgic reminiscence about being “high and mighty.”