Petr Šálek: 1984

The title of this series of photographs was inspired by George Orwell's book 1984. Petr Šálek has given everyday activities an Orwellian, sci-fi twist; the images are intended to portray a somewhat sardonic-laced-with-irony view of what life under a Big Brother state might be like. Perhaps we should not only learn from mistakes of the past, but we should also think about what our life might look like in the future if those lessons aren’t learned. (It may interest the viewer to note that Salek fled Czechoslovakia under communism in 1981. He returned to the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution). Most of the materials used in the photographs are of a 1984 or earlier vintage.