Déluge — Flaviu Rogojan

Small Assymetriad, 2021
Dye Transfer on Paper
70 cm x 51 cm

Octopucker, 2021
Dye Transfer on Paper
95 cm x 70 cm

shown in

Déluge →
Hortensia Mi Kafchin, Flaviu Rogojan
14. 05. 2021 - 27. 06. 2021
Zina Gallery, Cluj, Romania

The series of drawings aims to work as a cross-over fan-fiction, which mixes and connects fictional worlds of multiple different literary sources, all of which revolve around floods, flooded worlds, and sentient oceans.

The conscious planet-wide ocean in Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris is known to produce intricate liquid structures. The scientists studying the planet developed methodologie and taxonomies for the different manifestations of the ocean. In my fan-fiction series, the Solaris ocean dreams up the world and spawns the structures of a lesser known animation series, called Pirates of Dark Water. Taking off where the world-building of Pirates of Dark Water abruptly ended, I retrace and redraw elements from an obscure Pirates of Dark Water role playing game manual using the taxonomies of Solaris oceanography.

Besides the scientific methods described and critiqued in Lem’s novel, the works also reference outdated scientific texts on fossils and the historical flooded-earth hypothesis. The flood trope is explored beyond its biblical and historical world view, as a potential for world-building.

Ongoing project: For this series of works I plan to organize reading groups and role-playing game events, where participants would combine the waters of multiple sources (fictional or historical) of flood narratives. The resulting fictions that come out of the collective storytelling of role-playing become the basis for new cross-overs and fan-fictions.