Whale’s Eye (1:1)

The whale is sad cause it doesn’t fit.

The whale is endangered,
while the ant continues to do just fine.
– Bill Vaughan

We live in times when everyone has to fit in specific frames of our society to be good or ‘normal’. If you don’t fit, then you are odd, a misfit. If it is impossible to define you as similar to others, as a part of any typical group, then these groups often guess that something is just wrong with you. If you are incomprehensible, you can be even pushed away as if you’re sick or dangerous. On the other hand, if you’re simple person, dream small and act predictable, you’re no danger – then you’re widely accepted. Our society prefers ants – similar, easy to control, mind-limited. Education, ambition, dreams, confidence and own opinion make us grow bigger. We grow out of the frames – these small, and then from bigger ones. And more we stand out, less we’re accepted. And what happens when one grows too big to fit in any social frame? How is it to be a real whale in the society of ants, antelopes or bears?

Following this thought, I decided to create this simple graphic. I took a marker, paper and the largest of my frames, and I drew a whale’s eye in a 1: 1 scale. Teardrops underneath the eye represent the struggle of being big and beautiful in the world ruled by small and indistinctive. It’s loneliness, incomprehension, dissidence, but also amazing freedom of growth, of being who you want to be. And although I’m not a whale in this theory – I may be at most a growing weasel – then that’s how I imagine a social whale.

prints available

The original artwork (A0 format) and signed prints are available to buy in formats: A0 (841 x 1189 mm), A1 (594 x 841 mm), A2 (420 x 594mm), A3 (297 x 420 mm), A4 (210 x 297 mm), and postcard (148 x 105 mm). For more information and to order, please send me a message.