At the beginning of the XX century, the famous patron of the arts, Gertrude Stein, told her friend Ernst Hemingway, “You’re all a lost generation.” This anecdote became popular among different authors, and soon it became a catchphrase to describe the generation of American writers living in Europe during that time. The lost generation was transcendental in the literary world, and years later a new generation would surface, earning this coveted epithet.
This quote talks about not only those writers, it refers to all the people who feel lost, and find no comfort looking into the past.
The Lost generation concept that can be applied to the Madrileño artist Javier Rubín Grassa, who currently lives in Barcelona. His illustrations aim to portray today’s modern youth, which was born in a technological and fast paced environment. This world has been irrevocably transformed by the great machines of the industries. This generation now lives in the confines of social media and it vanishes between likes and dislikes.
“We are constantly searching for the approval of our friends, family, colleagues, and people we want to impress. We even try to like people we don’t even know. We, the Like Generation, are trying to prove we’re different, and at the same time we seek admiration. If we weren’t like this, we wouldn’t fit in, because we have to prioritize the story behind our six-pack, rather than the story of our true self.”
Javier Rubín Grassa illustrates the obsession hidden behind the likes, favs, and heart emoticons and he concludes that they’re not even real. We have replaced real experiences with virtual ones, and as a result, we have created a culture of suffering that wins over joy. We try to satisfy our own expectations without caring for the price, or who suffers as a consequence. Our trips are only there to be documented, edited, and filtered, losing sight of their importance and how they nurture our personal growth. This is only the beginning. It isn’t a good or successful trip if others don’t notice it and approve it by clicking on the right virtual button. It doesn’t matter if the interaction is positive or negative, we NEED it, we CRAVE it.
Centuries of culture are summarized by what we upload, and the pictures we post on social networks. A phrase we share on our “wall,” which in our eyes define our person, is but an insignificant fragment of the book called Life.
Hashtags, mentions, shares… we become what others order us to become and feeling ignored has never been as toxic as it is now.
Rubín Grassa’s illustrations tell the story of a generation that has lost its identity. It narrates the passive or explosive reactions we have in the face of love, the masks that hide our true selves, and our attempts to live in the real world. Ultimately, we fail and succumb to the monster, which drags us back to the digital world.
In Rubín Grassa’s eyes, our lives are no longer receptive to the teachings of our parents and grandparents.
There is an invisible gap between the way they learned to do things, and our way. They learnt, created, and worked hard to achieve their goals. We, on the other hand, couldn’t do that. We face over-exploitation, more supply than demand, reduced natural resources, and economic turmoil. These were terms that in the past didn’t touch so deeply and now they are the norm.
Love is explored by the artist in surreal and juxtaposed illustrations. The following work shows the many times one falls in love, out of love, and the people that touch our lives in the most unexpected ways.
Delusional, dreamers, egocentric, conscious, envious and charitable. More than being a lost generation, we are the generation of contradiction. Maybe we need to grow up, and make up our minds on relevant topics. For all one knows, we might have already done it, and we are defined by a world and ideas that can transform themselves overnight. Perhaps, we are just trying to change things and break down the walls of a system that worked for years, but is becoming obsolete. There’s a great chance that we are not a lost generation, we’re just trying to don’t give up, and find new alternatives to our conditions.
