COP: JAKUB EROL

Whilst looking into Polish Poster artists I stumbled across Jakub Erol. This was mostly because I wanted to see if any polish or Czech artists had covered the texts I'm looking at (Silence of The Lambs, Alien, Carrie, It Follows.) Erol had created a poster for Alien although looking at it that's not what you'd initially assume it was for. 

From this we can see the use of Freudian eyes in the image, but also how the ribcage is incorporated into the illustration so the viewer could also see it as a head as well. This poster is a prime example for why Polish posters are influencing my current work, i love how nothing about the movie's actors or narrative are given away. This poster makes more sense to those who have seen the film but it's still intriguing enough to get public to watch it. It picks up on themes strongly, Freud's Uncanny theory (the fear of castration) is strong within Alien 1979. As the male crew member is impregnated/ robbed of his masculinity. The ribcage being displayed, hints at the nature of the monster. Alien bursts out of his physical chest, but also is fear of the mind/ the unknown.   This poster says more about the movie and it's motives than it's westernised counterpart (pictured below). 

Some of Erol's work is slightly westernised, his poster for terminator does show Arnold's face, but again theres no real hint at him being a robot here. Just a clever use of red and yellow circles which after viewing the movie, we associate with the terminators eyes. 

Erol uses Freudian iconography a lot in his work (aware or not). Pictured below are his posters for Raiders Of The Lost Ark, which is a soft thriller (at a push) family movie yet Erol brings the Uncanny into it again with the loss of eyes and a red rope intertwining the sockets. Nothing about this poster suggests its for the family but it does suggest that there will be frights involved.  

The next image,  is a poster created for Weekend At Bernie's. This film is a comedy film but with dark undertones, this use of hands and eyes hints at this too. The eyes inside glasses hint at the funny but also slightly morbid (Bernie gets involved with the mob.. is killed and then his friend's keep his corpse around so they can party at his house.. weird). The black and white brings a sinister tone to the poster. This is amplified even more so when you look at the western poster comparison (also pictured below) which uses bright colours and also dates the whole thing by the attire worn by the men. 

This is something I really like about Polish and Czech posters.. they feel more like a piece of art than they do  promotion piece. They feel timeless and relevant to now, whereas westernised views of what posters should look like change every few years and look dated very fast (apart from staples in culture, such as the famed Pulp Fiction poster) and leave no lasting impression in the mind. Jakub Erol's thought provoking and disturbing images leave you thinking about the movie, whether that be thinking about going to see it or thinking about how relevant the poster is afterwards.