Mladen Stropnik: GOODMORNING

The special feature of the print portfolio entitled GOODMORNING is already the portfolio itself because viewing its cover page through an application on a smartphone offers us an enhanced reality of the visual image in the form of a graphic and acoustic intervention. This concept suggests that the viewer must become active in order to read, view and experience the works stored in the portfolio.

The experience begins with reading the instructions, which explain how we are to interact with and view each print as Stropnik had in mind, leading us to the feelings and thoughts that guided him in conceiving its content. When we hold a single print in our hands and handle it according to the instructions, we find that reading the instructions has metaphorically transformed into an active search for meaning.

Each of the prints can be a visual metaphor that subtly grows out of Stropnik's personal experience into learning about common reality or our intimate memory. Such a metaphor is supported by the titles of each print, with which he thoughtfully builds up a poetic visual formation, concluding it with a poem printed on the back of the portfolio. The graphic portfolio GOODMORNING is a collection of visual reflections that must be physically touched to be understood, which contradicts the established practice of such works on paper.

The prints of Mladen Stropnik offer us a kind of paradox in the form of mental snippets that we can only see when we actually hold them in our hands and intentionally or unintentionally leave a trace of ourselves on the print.