Harsh Salvation

Epic, morbid collages with an unruly sense of imminence and uncanny splendour make Mellow Apocalypse (2022) a perfect title for this body of work by Alnis Stakle. Carefully articulated chaos makes for scenes which present an uneasy grandeur, looming with history and death.

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel tells a beautifully articulated story of mankind. Its Biblical scenes are carefully composed, overwhelmingly employing countless figures overlapping in despair and glory, plastered on the walls, ceilings and crevices of its immaculate chapel. Stakle’s collages are similarly heavily populated with overlapping bodies, setting scenes of life and death, creation and destruction; overwhelmed images. While Biblical narratives are Michelangelo’s subject matter, the complex history of visual culture in art, science and journalism is Stakle’s; each pinch of these collages arriving at us with varying degrees of recognisability...Read the full article in the printed issue. Get OVER Journal 3

‍