In Deadly Kiss, the fraternal kiss emerges as an emblematic gesture charged with ambiguity, simultaneously an act of affection and a ritual of domination. The work intensifies the tension between identity and simulacrum by presenting the profiles of Stalin, Castro, Mao, and Lenin locked in a forced embrace that compresses their features until their noses are obliterated. The kiss ceases to function as a symbol of camaraderie and becomes a metaphor for the silent oppression that underlies every authoritarian regime.
Each stroke of graphite and charcoal attempts to replicate the coarse texture of bronze, the material historically used to confer solemnity upon official busts. Yet, this apparent monument is subverted; forms bleed into one another, contours blur, and tonal gradations reveal cracks in authority. The triptych unfolds according to historical chain logic: Stalin is at the epicenter, the axis of loyalties (Castro and Mao) and internal critique (Lenin). This exposes how fraternal bonds can conceal exclusion and resentment.
The triptych operates as a dialogic space where memory is fragmented and recombined. Confronted with faces stripped of essential features, viewers are compelled to question the veracity of official images and hegemonic narratives. Deadly Kiss invites reflection on the power of the iconic, the fragility of collective identity, and the latent violence in seemingly benign gestures.
…»Stalin is too coarse and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc.
V.I. Lenin
Had Comrade Krupskaya fulfilled Comrade Lenin’s testament, which was to be read at the 12th Congress of the CPSU in 1923, Comrade Stalin would have been removed from his post.
