Dark Father Analysis

The art of Ancient Greece has been imitated extensively since its inception. One notable adoption was the sculpture Dark Father by Genco Gülan, a contemporary Turkish artist focused on new media/digital age art whose work tends to have social, cultural and political connotations. Dark Father is a sculpture of Darth Vader's mask on the shoulders of Marcus Aurelius, a piece heavily loaded with cultural and political meaning. What themes does Dark Father explore and what tools were used to achieve this? Dark Father was created in 2013 as part of the series Future Archaeology, smooth classical marble pieces each with a contemporary twist. Hercules has Athena's head, Livia Drusilla is three heads attached at the necks, Darth Vader is on a Roman emperors bust. The head of Darth Vader, the highly-ranked henchman in
His rulership was commemorated in painting, writing, sculpture, in currency, and in many other mediums. This commemoration alleviates the subject to a higher, more idyllic status, a hero to be remembered and admired by immortalising it in life-size 3D. This disconnects the subject from the viewer, as the subject is seen as something untouchable, to be worshipped. This power play keeps the viewer respectful, reverent and even subordinate. This being such a strong propaganda tool is what makes the use of Darth Vader fascinating. Appropriating the seriousness of ancient roman idealisation and merging it with a contemporary pop culture ruler spotlights the very idea of the propaganda, which is not always obvious, making dark father a commentary or observation but not a judgement, as the viewer is