Electric Posters: The world of Piotr Szyhalski

Electric Poster series. At first you think the punch lines will be funny—they phase in, ghostly and accusing. The graphic success of appearing to be from some Orwellian past is complete and haunting. Perhaps it's because it rings true our suspicions about the present time. Maybe we are so doomed to repeat it all, or that we dread that we've become all that we say we oppose. And the strangely funny thing that draws open, though just wistful really, is that it is just all too blankly human and that there is nothing to do.



I try to dig around the site to find out more about who made all this? I even emailed the person. No answer so far and really I should have done more digging instead. I found out more about the designer. Excert from Paul Haeberli's Sound Image and Text introduction to the exhibit.

For me, the work of Piotr Szyhalski (Pronunciation: Pea.oh'.tr Shi.hal'.ski) is some of the most inspiring and exciting art work that is being created today.

Mr. Szyhalski's unusual approach to art expresses itself in many ways. He creates leaflets, paintings, posters, booklets and web pages. He does not accept money in exchange for his art - his work is always given freely. Piotr has had shows of his paintings in galleries, but again, these are never sold, instead they are painted over or destroyed.

Piotr does not create for some elite, but instead makes work that is accessible to anyone. He shows how propaganda can be used in service of the people instead of against them.

"There are two things that make the Internet environment particularly interesting to me. One, the direct connection between the artist and the audience. . . . Two, the ultimate negation of the material value traditionally attached to the concept of art. . . . My work communicates complex meanings while remaining nothing but an electric impulse."

- Piotr Szyhalski excerpted from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Six years ago, Piotr came to the United States from Poland where he studied poster design. He currently teaches at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Piotr is one of the most exceptional visual artists working today. His brilliant works incorporate inspiring text, careful typography, beautiful photography and clean design.

I found this site as well, also by Piotr Szyhalski, The Inward Vessels of the Spleen. It's like falling into a rabbit hole and you're Alice. I haven't explored all the links which promises to reveal only the arcane or deliver more hauntings. I'll give it the proper time, in time.

Selected transcripts from the online opening for The Electric Posters Exhibition at the Silicon Graphics Innovate Online Gallery, April 16, 1997.

And as if that wasn't enough he has this: Our Victory Book is a small book printed on very cheap paper that is meant to be given to people in "hospitals, jails, schools, studios and banquet favors."