Nothing Scary
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Commentary
This image challenges the notion that the meaning of a picture resides within its frame, and makes the frame itself all part of the image. This notion fascinated the Surrealists as well. We have a child staring into an open door, perhaps the door into a closet, where many childhood fears are focused? A monster hovers behind the door, and our child looks lost. However, AK undermines this in a couple of ways. The most striking is the human hand that holds all this together in the frame around the image. This functions as both an allegorical hand to balance the monster's, and as the artist's hand as well. Once again, AK is letting us know that he is in control of his elements, and so the scary monster becomes only a graphic creation, and therefore "nothing." However, there is another incongruity that prevents such a clean reading. The door and the door frame both have rounded corners, but at the wrong ends, so this door can't possibly snugly close the opening. The monsters can always get in, and this door can't hold them back. Viewing this in context of the child's passive posture, a new meaning emerges. "Nothing Scary" becomes very real, and in effect, the nothing IS truly scary - which is echoed by the complete blackness that engulfs the child, who is similarly reduced to a thin outline. The reassuring hand outside the frame also loses some of its calming effect, because it is outside the frame, and therefore implicitly unable to directly affect the scene. So now, the artist's hand serves as a dark messenger, delivering us the scene, and relying on us once again to face its implications, with no easy outs to resolve it for us. This kind of challenging imagery is reminiscient of Rene Magritte, who unfortunately has been taken off the internet (unless you're buying posters), as many of his pictures are still licensed. At least Johann Fussli is available.
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Image and title "Nothing Scary" copyright 2000 by the artist