1st layer:
a paragraph of text (slo!) that serves as a short resume of this blog post:

Pripomoček za spopad z zgodovino

2nd layer:
a silhouette of hammer and sickle,
a communist symbol

3rd layer:
- Red starfish (Echinaster sepositus)
- Medieterranean moray (Muraena helena) placed over the sickle
- Scalloped Hammerhead Shark (Sphyrna lewini) placed over the hammer

4th layer:
a net of Phallusia mammilata
(slo "bradavičasti kozolnjak"), strange creatures that best represent the strange climate in modern Slovene society :))

I've really tried to preserve transparency - the text (that serves as a key to understanding the painting) remains readable through succesive layers.

1st layer:
a generic "desert war" scenery

2nd layer:
Giant triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens) is the most dangerous fish of the Red sea

3rd layer:
a net of images of the famous "Electric Ku-Klux" Abu Ghraib torture victim
(upside down to better fit the title)

I wanted to make a "square" that could actually function as a wall - decoration, but still be subversive and critical of society.

The title (after Geri Hallivel's remake of an ancient 1-hit-wonder hit song) explains the direction of the torture victim and provides for a ""Biblical reference" (hallelujah!).
A giant TRIGGERfish blended with a desert stands for, of course, desert wars.
In the painting you can find Iraq, Guantanamo, the "holy crusade" bushism, Middle East, human rights issues, oil, climate warming, ... and, nevertheless, 150 hours of good old traditional oil painting craft.

Now - if that painting ain't sublime I don't know what is :))

- It's Raining Men (Wiki)

- "It's Raining Men" lyrics

- Giant triggerfish attack (You Tube)

- the torturing of Satar Jabar (Wiki)

1st layer: "Roman Style":
A fresco from Pompei, accurately painted.

2nd layer: "Greek Style":
An image from a piece of Greek pottery (featuring "man's love", I suppose), accurately painted.

3rd layer: "Greco-Roman Style":
A net of intriguing Greco-Roman wrestling clinches (featuring "man's love" as well, as far as I'm concerned...)
9 images, all different this time. Meticoulously painted, what else...



Below I've added a few details:

The title should, of course,
be taken as a metaphor.

The painting is about a funny fact in Slovenia - that the Roman Catholic Church is providing pornography.
A few years ago the Church led a loud campaign against cable-TV porn.
Today one of the biggest Slovene cable-TV (porn included) providers, T2, is owned by The Church itself.
Thus penetrating this country on 2 layers
at the same time - providing the means of instant sin as well as instant deliverance.
.

The painting:

1st layer: double penetration, meticoulously painted

2nd layer: outlined shape of Slovenia, external part slightly darkened with a thin layer of paint

3rd layer: the map of the T2 optic fibres network (as in late summer, 2007), meticoulously painted

4th layer: the net of churches
(copies of the stylised sketch that The Slovene Church uses on its web page), meticoulously painted
.

ps.
I've been contemplating about such a painting for at least a year.
Just before Christmas 07 The Church had announced it's intention to sell the company (T2) before the New Year 08.
So I'm happy to announce that I have managed to finish the painting
before they actually sold T2
- and it is May 2008 already :))

Something had bothered me about this painting for 5 years. Something seamed to had been missing before I figured out few months ago it was a layer of Borats.
So now we have a feminine layer featuring Mohammad Ali's daughter Laila teaching some chick a lesson, and above that a masculine layer featuring Evgeni Plushenko (Jevgenij Viktorovič Pluščenko) knocking himself out.
And above that - a net of 9 Borats, best representing the true spirit of the painting.

- Farewell to the Marllboro-man and famous Camel brand adds
- Smoking bans spreading
- An urban Christmas motive (NY)
- Religious references:

Bible:
...I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24

Quran:
"To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin."
Al-Araf (The Heights) 7:40

Passion (slovene "Pasijon")
as in "Passion of Christ"
or "Passion Play" (passion as emotion
would translate "strast")

- the Marines
- Guantanamo
- Marilyn Monroe
- Viagra

1st layer: the Afgan as an icon, as a symbol of broadness, of freedom. Freedom-fighter or a terrorist? Released from property, education, comfort. Gun - the only sign of civilization.

2nd layer: wiew through an aiming device. Reflection before the shot, deciding between life and death. Symmetry, circle. Mandala as an eastern tool for meditation. Mandala as a symbol of western New-age pop religions. Faith as a consumer good vs faith as the way and essence of life. Clash of civilizations; same God, opposite ways...

3rd layer: gold - greed. In it, surplusses of ancient civilizations are stored. In it, in treasuries the value of modern money is guarded. Native, shiny, eternal. McDonalds - native franchises cover the World. Consumption, haste, modern slavery. Civilised trailor-trash fatsoes vs "poverty" of freedom and isolation...

(not a square - yet still a Square)

Ga-ga the poultry farm,
ga-ga the music,
Ga-ga-rin.

No shortcuts, of course. Each of them Gagarins is handpainted.

1st layer: a scene from newsreel, children marching with flags, taking an oath to dictatorship.

2nd layer: a scene from a commemoration, a Pioneer* reads. Reads, swears. Understands he not.

3rd layer: a Symbol. In my drawer, I searched out the cap. Copied the Badge.

I´m observing and wondering. They denie. they talk of Slovenian statesmanship. Gradually, they¨re administrating everything. "What revolution?" But I DO remember! "For homeland - forward with Tito! Revolution, the Party. In shools: The Revolution Goes On! The "folk" song: Comrade Tito, blue violet..." In the Parliament: I recognize them today, that swore HIM in serbian.
Systematic indoctrination of whole generations. Little flags in our hands, and wawing in the street! Neckerchief, cap and washed little brains. Their Project decayed, the brains are still washed. We all are heirs of Crime. Don´t write it with the capital, they say.

* Pioneer is a member of Pioneers´ Association, a sociopolitical communist organisation for children from the age of 7 to 14. (membership was obligatory an automatic)

1st layer: a scene from an Indian tantric temple.

2nd layer: I searched the web for little stoneage statues. I chose and arranged for my painting Venuses from Laussel, Lespuge and Savignano.

3rd layer: I devoted the central position to the Venus of Willendorf, up to 37.000 years old according to latest knowlege.

4th layer: Priap from Ephez. I arranged the picture to get a black silhuette and made a stamp by it. Priap´s layer has a different texture, floating on - piercing through the painting.

The painting, made of images of well known human heritage, shocks some people today, which amuses me.