At the core of Lukáš Vacek’s graduation work is the tension between a real and a symbolic figure, the transition from an anatomic whole to a psychological image. The thin layer of the “me” in the title is not meant literally. Perhaps it would be better described as a thin layer of my “self” – a membrane between inside and outside. Vacek is here trying to capture the moment of transition between the everyday and the extraordinary, to produce a figurative expression of familiar feelings while moving along the very limits of what is optically possible.

But the resulting works should be more than just an illustration of a situation or phenomenon; they should make use of elements inherent to this exclusively pictorial medium in order to effectively communicate with the viewer.

With the subject of A Thin Layer of Me, Vacek loosely follows on his earlier work in which he mixed elements of monomythical narrative with a figurative approach to the image. His starting point is his fascination with iconography and with archetypal symbols that universally relate to all of us. Other themes found in his earlier work include sleep, levitation, and the symbolism of the hand. With this graduation work, he continues to systematically expand the scope of his work while potentially updating previously explored motifs.