Smiley by Aniruddh Mehta (thebigfatminimalist)

Smiley by Aniruddh Mehta (thebigfatminimalist)

The first in Aniruddh Mehta’s Superstructure series, Smiley takes a symbol of hedonistic abandon in late 20th century rave culture and juxtaposes it against an inescapably brutalist modern reality. What was once an innoucuous yellow stamp of joy, rebellion and pure escapism pushing back against the iron grip of Thatcherism, now comes to represent something diffferent altogether - the suffocating air of overdevelopment, hyper-industrialization, mass-consumerism, and mediocre artistic expression purpose-built to satiate only the controlled masses. 

Mehta’s work aches with the friction between counterculture and capitalism, between music’s dream of unity and the cold, heartless machinations of urban development. The smiley that once danced under strobe lights now fights to breathe amongst the clank of machinery and the distant rumble of construction. The slick, bright emblem of rave utopia is now barely holding itself together.

Mehta’s Superstructures isn’t just a series of clever juxtapositions. It is more so a stark reminder that symbols of resistance are eventually cannibalized by the systems they oppose. The smiley face here is both an artifact and a casualty of that battle, still grinning, but its joy feels haunted, its edges corroded. Will it survive, or will it finally be buried under the weight of progress?