Meaning of This Picture?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

So, what is the story behind this piece of art? It is driving me crazy: Mickey Mouse, Lenin, and Jesus...??? Does anyone know what the artist was thinking when he made it?

https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRlx6EHxuOgb1iuPeEmFR9ksniaWmQHQ O-1IEUStEyCXzfYwHXZag

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

So, what is the story behind this piece of art? It is driving me crazy: Mickey Mouse, Lenin, and Jesus...??? Does anyone know what the artist was thinking when he made it?

https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRlx6EHxuOgb1iuPeEmFR9ksniaWmQHQ O-1IEUStEyCXzfYwHXZag

He was probably high.

[Red Commissar]

The artist in question is one Alexander Kosolapov. The piece is called "Hero, Leader, God". Some of his pieces seem to be combinations of American pop culture and socialist realism.

http://www.sotsart.com/projects/index.html

You can see other Mickey sculptures in there too, among other odd pieces.

On the Lenin bit he describes it has



Now a few words about the style of Mickey-Lenin.
This work is based on the method of bringing together two opposing semiotic fields (symbols, signs, icons).

One field is the socialist realist Lenin (the prototype for which was the statue of Lenin by the famous Soviet sculptor Nikolai Tomsky), which I take as an integrated semiotic block created in the socio-cultural space with its own philosophy and system of creating an effect (Socialist Realism).

One of the big advantages I saw in this figure was that this large block of mass culture was already implanted in the people’s conscience, and the work was done for me before I came along inside the millions of tons of grey brain matter that is called the “social consciousness.”

Along with the other component of this work – Mickey – the two work not only the binary oppositions of East-West, Russia-America, Communism-Capitalism, the sublime – the trashy, the beautiful – the ugly, or good – evil, but also as the high and low in art. Hence Lenin stands for classical high art; his pose of a Caesar interprets the famous Roman sculpture and appeals to the masses in its capacity as something significant in the vertical social hierarchy, a representative of what the propaganda machine calls “aesthetically beautiful and eternal values.” And Mickey, then, is the horizontal element – low, consumerist, trashy – a travesty of a freakish mask.

My personal interest in Mickey is connected not only to Sergei Eisenstein, who called him the greatest actor of his epoch, but also to Hitler who, like all dictators following him, was a fan of Mickey (a hero who is a distorted antihero).

Long story short, Mickey Mouse, as the “pulp fiction, trash culture hero” who has very much entered the cultural vocabulary, is worthy of being brought together with the “great proletarian leader of all progressive humanity.”

Yet another interesting trajectory that repeats itself along the lines of the familiar “good-bad” opposition schema is the real-life history of the sculpture Mickey-Lenin.Unfortunately he doesn't provide the same description behind the piece you linked, it's probably one of those "WHO DO YOU THINK IS WHO?" type things. If you looking around his website, particularly his bio (note that he emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 70s) and the description of his projects, you'll probably see he's doing this in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

That's the most I could gather from running that image through a search.

[Comrade Samuel]

Traditional god, communist god and 1950's kids god I hardly see much to be confused about here. :D

I honestly have no idea what this guy was thinking perhaps just a weird stunt for attention?

[Yuppie Grinder]

communist god
agggghhh

[Robespierres Neck]

Interesting combination of cultural and ideological antagonism.
Although it has a different meaning, it reminds me a lot of the Banksy piece with Mickey Mouse, Phan Thi Kim Phuc (the napalmed Vietnamese girl), and Ronald McDonald.

[Franz Fanonipants]

this is pretty great i'm not gonna lie

[Yazman]

agggghhh

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