MFT: Vlodko Kostyrko - Gotta Be Hard

You know sometimes, you need to stop and take a long, hard look back at all the things that happened over some time and contemplate about the inherent movement of time and its utter inanity. It helps to get the hold on oneself and retain some sort of a perpicatious balance. 

This is what just happened to me. It was rather rough. I had a bout of anxiety for no reason at all. Just felt really-really lost all of a sudden. 

But while i was trying to get myself together - one image came to my mind and denied going away before it was spewn into the ether. It was somewhat indelible but otherwise not quite significant. The word that best describes this image is perplexing. And then haunted because it was not going away.

Here is this little picture: 

It is a photo by Vlodko Kostyrko, an artist from Lviv. He is a good chap with some really cool paintings. You should check him out. 

The photo documents a message. It is a proverbial writing on the wall. A sentence if being exact. An assertive one. The text says:

"Gotta be hard. Dick.". 

I guess this needs phrase no further elaboration because it says everything for itself. It is as tongue in cheek as it gets and that is what makes it so special. It makes sense. Probably too much sense, but you can't really argue with the message. It is true. That's the way it should be.

The photo was made circa 1993. No further information regarding the piece is available but who cares when this is the piece we are talking about. This piece needs nothing to be appreciated.

As it is - it is a nice little piece of provocative graffitti that is rarely to be found these days when the very concept is utilized and commodified to walk in line with the party. It shows everything truly great writing on the wall should be - blunt and direct, pointing at vaguely abstract and erupting eerie opaqueness that engulfs everything around it just to prove its point.