One single blade of grass can be heartbreaking. And we can keep it as a memento. It reminds us of our loving homeland, our sweet home, hopelessly far away, where our souls were embraced by the unconditional love of the mother – and we feel so much pain because of her absence. To be tormented by the distance, one need not be distant in time and space. The blissful state that was ours a moment before vanishes irretrievably. This loss is, sooner or later, a common sorrow for all members of the humanity, with no exception.
Győző Sárkány is a strong, persistent man – like the ancient Greek soldiers who were returning from Troy after a tough fight. Their souls suffered the ’algos’, the pain, the anguish of absence, amidst the agony of ’nostos’, that is, returning home. The artist also fights with his own means, searching for the magic that brings relief. With the drawing pen, he intervenes in the judgment of the goddess Ananke, who controls fate and destiny. There must be mercy.
How much audacity! How much humility! Is the distributor of punishment and reward allowed to be pleaded with or influenced? Győző Sárkány’s nostalgia cycle is the steadfast chant of the determined prayer. With exemplary restraint, he does not put his virtuosic and grandiose graphic world into the foreground. He composes the facture of the earth’s surface, the rhythm of grass fibres and plant lines. His repetitive motifs represent the continuous movement of existence. The awe of the natural image is interspersed with subtle distinctions here and there, with gentle humour in the form of displaying signposts, assuring the viewer that the peak and the valley (an allegory of heaven and hell?) are equidistant from us. And the useful reed and the ‘useless’ weed are equally among the wonders of creation. The pantheistic photographic compositions inspired by the Bükkös stream, created decades later, show an amazing affinity with the hymnal images of the Nostalgia cycle. Even drawing a single blade of grass is imbued with the exaltation of creation. The depiction of these nostalgic landscapes is a masterpiece of meditation without words.
Gábor Szerényi graphic designer
