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Jordan Marzuki: Draws his way through his childhood memories
Indonesian designer, video-maker and illustrator Jordan Marzuki celebrates his childhood in his book.
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'Swat' by Jordan Marzuki (Courtesy of Jordan Marzuki/-)
T
itled War, Astronaut, Death, Violence, Floating Mountain and Roman Soldiers Jordan Marzuki’s self-published book is a collection of his drawings between 1990 and 1999, beginning when he was 3 years of age until he was 12.
As its title generously suggests, the book's 200-plus pages feature many renderings of war, both the earthly and galactic kind, a lot of planetary adventures, many depictions of death and carnage, and a good deal of the fantastical.
The drawings feature the rather-humorous physical scaling and liberal sense of structure, that is certainly befitting of its creator's age at that time (most of these were drawn during his preteen years), but they also feature a lot of attention to complex detail that showcases the creator's growing talent.
The war scenes in particular, are rendered with an obvious passion toward the mechanics of battleships, fighter planes and weapons. Depending on how it is viewed, the violence is both disturbingly omnipresent and humorously grotesque.
Pop culture also makes its way through Jordan's pen and pencil, with sci-fi cinematic mainstays such as Blade Runner and Robocop and children-oriented books like the Where's Waldo series making appearances alongside Japanese cartoons like Doraemon.
News-worthy happenings also influenced the young Jordan, as with some short comic-like stories featuring the actions of SWAT teams filling up some pages.
