Gatukardiogram

C.O. Hultén made Street Cardiogram in 1944, when the turning point in the war finally came. It was one of three works he drew with a drafting pen and ruler as though they were architectural drawings. It was an irony-filled critique, in the spirit of Dadaism, of the technocratic society that had begun to take shape in the thirties and grown increasingly strong during the war years, with its ideal of the functional and rational as the paragon of beauty.

If we study the picture a little more closely, its ostensibly ordered world quickly becomes a labyrinth of meanings. Architectural forms shift their shapes and are transformed into forms that seem produced schematically. Sex plays a prominent role, and a touch of sensuality flows through the strict formal language. Hand-written messages and small drawings have snuck into the picture everywhere. They return the picture to the reality of the drafting table, at the same time introducing a number of variables and giving the drawing the character of a game.