Feel The Darkness

Upturned crosses and corpse-painted faces, naturalistic small birds and flowery fields. Dokument Press and Vice present the book Feel the Darkness - the work of Ragnar Persson 2006-2009. The scenes in Ragnar Persson´s pictorial world might have been lifted from a teenager´s diary. A time and place where you sneak out into the woods, smoke a cigarette and think "Nobody understands me". Ragnar Persson was raised on heavy metal, and discovered drawing through album covers. He also draws inspiration from old scenic painting. Incorporating childhood memories, he creates his own world of pictures, a world that tells who he is, and in which all can recognise themselves. This is true for writer and curator Johan Kugelberg, American Riot Grrrl icon Amy Kellner, and Vice editor Elin Unnes, who all contributed texts. Hard and soft are counterposed, as are morbid mysticism and loving tenderness. The liberating effect of Naivism is combined with refined artistic technique and sketchy salvoes alternate with painstakingly executed pencil drawings. And the recurrent heavy metal aesthetic is disarmed with crushing wit.