Lost
2018
Lust Direction
Lost was made in 2018, when Paalu studied marketing in Chicago.
The original drawing was drawn with the intention to combine it with digital collaging, done by leaving empty spaces for digital expression.
Lost is made from +200 different images and layers, giving it the highest layer count in comparison to his other projects.
Lost, as an uncompressed file, is above 2 gigabytes of data — an image, half the size of a high quality movie download on iTunes.
The physical drawing itself took over 40 hours to complete, and the digital editing took more than 100 hours, then followed by additional revisions.
It is by definition, Paalu’s magnum opus.
‘Lost’ is a depiction of the underworld.
Paalu describes the underworld as a place of deceit, chaos, death, lust, subjugation and blissful ignorance — a definition akin to the theological genre.
Yet he does not intend to make references to the symbolic representations of the underworld in the biblical narrative, despite having a hissing snake on the prideful temple.
In the creation of ‘Lost’ he was merely directed by his subconscious that drew him towards archetypical figures, like the jack-in-the-box clown popping out of a peaceful idyl as a representation of deceit, or the pointy bird inspired by the role of ‘Yubaba’ in ‘Chihiro’, that tyrannically monitors the lost souls of the bathhouse to make sure no one goes looking for what they once lost in a deal with the devil.
Then there’s also the aforementioned prideful temple, golden in its might but balancing on the cusp of a chaotic spiral.
The auric temple exemplifies the king of the underworld who sits on a rocky crown, only able to keep his crown if he moves along the course of the underworld spiral — a story of someone whom we all know from our hometowns.
The king is someone holding high status at the local bar, admired by many and bedded by hundreds, but is stuck siphoning the attention and admiration of weak people succumbing to his welcoming nature.
People who do not know their value are given value by the king — but only when they do not hold the king accountable of his immoral actions; letting sexual intercourse with minors, drunk driving, violence, or adultery slide under the rug, since they are victims to his charm and social dominance.
They know their king is a harmful sinner, but there is no one to judge him in the underworld.
Anyone who daringly questions the moral of his actions will be expelled from his social kingdom, and that is not desirable for those who comfort themselves with the warm blanket of social approval granted by the king.
The king will never be judged, because a condition of the underworld is the lack of justice.
In fact, the king is there because there is no justice.
He is not judged because God cannot judge where God’s hands do not reach.
The king does not like God, and has placed himself comfortably out of his reach.
The king once lost to God, and was then swallowed by the allure of winning where he cannot lose.
He says: ‘ha’ to god, ‘I can do anything I want!’ — but this alluring playground has a price for entrance, and only god knows what it costs to get in.
An abstract heavenward path is located by the right side of the canvas.
It begins at the bottom right corner with a brain as a starting point, and ends at the top with a turquoise pool shaped like an eye.
The end of the path shows no skies nor erects gold coated gates but leads upwards, into the unknown.
From the eye, a path points back to the underworld and another points towards the sunlit horizon.
A second sun shines in the upper left corner, but is a cheap imitation of the real deal.
The fake sun is always lit for those who stand still, while the real sun never sets for those trudging upwards towards the unknown summits of paradise — in essence, paradise is not a place, it’s a direction.
Lost was made in 2018, when Paalu studied marketing in Chicago.
The original drawing was drawn with the intention to combine it with digital collaging, done by leaving empty spaces for digital expression.
Lost is made from +200 different images and layers, giving it the highest layer count in comparison to his other projects.
Lost, as an uncompressed file, is above 2 gigabytes of data — an image, half the size of a high quality movie download on iTunes.
The physical drawing itself took over 40 hours to complete, and the digital editing took more than 100 hours, then followed by additional revisions.
It is by definition, Paalu’s magnum opus.
‘Lost’ is a depiction of the underworld.
Paalu describes the underworld as a place of deceit, chaos, death, lust, subjugation and blissful ignorance — a definition akin to the theological genre.
Yet he does not intend to make references to the symbolic representations of the underworld in the biblical narrative, despite having a hissing snake on the prideful temple.
In the creation of ‘Lost’ he was merely directed by his subconscious that drew him towards archetypical figures, like the jack-in-the-box clown popping out of a peaceful idyl as a representation of deceit, or the pointy bird inspired by the role of ‘Yubaba’ in ‘Chihiro’, that tyrannically monitors the lost souls of the bathhouse to make sure no one goes looking for what they once lost in a deal with the devil.
Then there’s also the aforementioned prideful temple, golden in its might but balancing on the cusp of a chaotic spiral.
The auric temple exemplifies the king of the underworld who sits on a rocky crown, only able to keep his crown if he moves along the course of the underworld spiral — a story of someone whom we all know from our hometowns.
The king is someone holding high status at the local bar, admired by many and bedded by hundreds, but is stuck siphoning the attention and admiration of weak people succumbing to his welcoming nature.
People who do not know their value are given value by the king — but only when they do not hold the king accountable of his immoral actions; letting sexual intercourse with minors, drunk driving, violence, or adultery slide under the rug, since they are victims to his charm and social dominance.
They know their king is a harmful sinner, but there is no one to judge him in the underworld.
Anyone who daringly questions the moral of his actions will be expelled from his social kingdom, and that is not desirable for those who comfort themselves with the warm blanket of social approval granted by the king.
The king will never be judged, because a condition of the underworld is the lack of justice.
In fact, the king is there because there is no justice.
He is not judged because God cannot judge where God’s hands do not reach.
The king does not like God, and has placed himself comfortably out of his reach.
The king once lost to God, and was then swallowed by the allure of winning where he cannot lose.
He says: ‘ha’ to god, ‘I can do anything I want!’ — but this alluring playground has a price for entrance, and only god knows what it costs to get in.
An abstract heavenward path is located by the right side of the canvas.
It begins at the bottom right corner with a brain as a starting point, and ends at the top with a turquoise pool shaped like an eye.
The end of the path shows no skies nor erects gold coated gates but leads upwards, into the unknown.
From the eye, a path points back to the underworld and another points towards the sunlit horizon.
A second sun shines in the upper left corner, but is a cheap imitation of the real deal.
The fake sun is always lit for those who stand still, while the real sun never sets for those trudging upwards towards the unknown summits of paradise — in essence, paradise is not a place, it’s a direction.