Varga Ádám: Unknown Insignia

Ádám Varga's project Unknown Insignia aims to reinterpret heraldry in painting and to build a fictional dimension. The title Unknown Insignia, or unknown coats of arms, suggests that Ádám Varga's coats of arms are familiar, yet they make us uncertain, as they do not fulfil their main function of clear identification. His work confirms the recognition that many of the coats of arms in our visual culture today are irregular, as their use and the way they convey meaning have changed over time, and that most of them no longer conform to the strict heraldic rules established in the Middle Ages. The concept of the coat of arms is actually the shield as a form, and Adam Varga remains faithful to this form in most of his works, but he directly contradicts the formal and colour rules of heraldry. They can be associated with an imagined identity that exists in a parallel dimension and draws on the language of contemporary visual culture. Thus, each image reminds us of existing coat of arms constructs, such as the crests of football teams or the logos of various brands, but importantly they are not identical to them. In each case, they use colours and shapes to play with our associative reflexes.

Boglárka Tóth