Scream

This artwork was inspired by Edvard Munch’s iconic The Scream from 1893, one of the most recognisable works in modern art. My early work was largely based on reconstructing famous artworks through wooden pixels, and this piece became one of the biggest challenges of that period.

I started with a photograph of Munch’s original and pixelated it using a simple pixel program. The image was divided into a seemingly random number of squares, and I only discovered the final number of pixels after having the template printed and counting them myself.

The print unexpectedly changed the entire process. Many of the original colours became distorted or disappeared completely, so for more than two weeks I assembled the artwork according to a reference that differed significantly from Munch’s original. For a long time, I simply did not like what I was creating. Even after the final pixel was placed, the piece still felt unfinished to me.

That dissatisfaction eventually led to the element that changed the artwork completely.

I decided to use the angles of the wooden pixels as part of the composition. The blocks forming the central figure were arranged in one direction, while the surrounding background was tilted in the opposite direction. Because the wooden surface catches and reflects light differently from each angle, the figure begins to separate visually from its surroundings and can appear almost illuminated.

For me, this contrast became a way of translating the heavy and unsettling energy of Munch’s image into the physical structure of the artwork itself. What began as an attempt to reconstruct a famous painting eventually became an important lesson for me: sometimes the part of a work that initially feels wrong is exactly what pushes it towards something more personal.

FUNFACT:
Munch created several versions of The Scream using different techniques. The famous 1893 version belongs to the National Museum in Oslo, while MUNCH holds other particularly fragile versions of the motif. Because some of them were created on cardboard using light-sensitive materials, their exposure to light has to be carefully controlled.