Gallery 01:15

Drawing the World An image can be a powerful tool for expressing what cannot be conveyed in words. It can help us understand and question our times by visualising complex ideas and layers of contradictory meaning. Drawing has long been used to highlight political, social, and cultural issues, to mock those in power, and to critique social phenomena. Satirical drawings and caricatures are popular features in newspapers, pointing out what is wrong, ridiculous, or false in the world and between people. Recognition plays a key role, as do humour, irony, and exaggeration. They make us laugh, even when the subject matter is serious, but the laughter can catch in our throats. Creating alternative worlds to counterbalance our own can be another way of opening our minds to new perspectives, and that is what Ragnar Persson does in Night Life Wakes Up and Takes Over. He starts drawing in one corner of the paper and then fills it with his special fairytale world, the fictional village of Vitvattnet. For Persson, drawing is something that brings us all together: “Everyone can draw. It’s easy and requires no prior knowledge.”