Real Play Figures 

With the Real Play Figures series Marko Lipuš continues with the exploration of portraiture genre, while maintaining his distinctive formal approach with so called “scratchings”. In this case the viewer is confronted by the portraits of soldiers, based on models, realistically shaped dolls, thus demystifying the role of a soldier in a post-modern society. Soldiers are depicted as depersonalised members of an imperial state, while also ironic, as Lipuš this time portrayed only plastic figurines. The Real Play Figures series brings forth a peculiar and topical theme of wars alluding to the code of “proper behaviour” of the U.S. troops stemming from a secret military documents, as described and published on the WikiLeaks. Similar to his previous works Lipuš insists at his distinctive formal approach where the manipulation interferes with the materiality of the photographic medium by cutting and scratching the negative.

Dejan Sulga