x Dimén Áron
For ZSIGMOND's collection titled OBSCURE, we collaborated with artist and practising tattooist Dimén Áron. The collection was inspired by an era that is not often talked about: the persecution of the kulaks in 1950s Hungary, in the times of a newly enforced socialist regime. The persecution that the landowners faced was harrowing with the attic sweeping practices of the officials in power that had them in constant fear and terror.
When ZSIGMOND's designer, Dora, came across Áron's work, her immediate, visceral reaction was similar to what the topic of her inspiration evoked. In line with these themes and Áron's unique style, the prints designed by him for the collection are a take on the anti-kulak propaganda posters of the 1950s. A satire of satire, Áron's claustrophobic vision is raw, dark and twisted - a feeling that is present in all of his artwork. When asked about where the darkness in his art comes from, even Áron is unsure. "Sometimes even I'm surprised what I end up drawing. I grew up in the mountains of Transylvania, maybe that's where it originates." It was at a young age that Áron's fascination with art started. "I've always been drawing. Everybody does when they're children. I went to art school when I was seven, but it wasn't until after my first year at architecture school at the age of fifteen that I knew that the one thing I hated most was drawing straight lines." Áron's art is anything but straight lines: it is a view through black-coloured glasses of a twisted world, full of sinister, satiric motifs. Chaotic, claustrophobic - and deeply humane.