This titular work represents Earth itself as broken sphere—environmental and political crises converging during 2020's unprecedented global moment. Mixed colored glass fragments collected from Atlanta streets during simultaneous pandemic and protests symbolize planetary fragmentation across multiple dimensions: ecological destruction, political division, social breakdown. Gerliczki's reassembly into imperfect sphere suggests both damage and possibility—the planet is broken but pieces remain, capable of reconstruction if humanity acts. The work directly addresses "current crisis of political and environmental problems" as existential threat.
Zoltan depicts a broken planet alongside 13 other “planets” based on the most common human feelings or behaviors, such as happiness, sadness, anger, anticipation, fear, loneliness, jealousy, disgust, trust, greed, joy, racism, and shame.
In these images, the artist works with various fragments of colored glass and other debris that he collected from the streets near his home in Atlanta during the COVID-19 quarantine and political protests. Zoltan assembles these pieces in his studio and re-photographs them to symbolize the current crisis of political and environmental problems. At this moment, the most pressing issues of our time concern ourselves and the future of our culture and our planet. In a sense, the artist takes the pieces and puts them back together to reconstruct a fragmented world.
“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who do nothing about it.” -Albert Einstein
The Broken Planet confronts environmental and political crisis—fragmented 2020 debris reassembled addressing planetary emergency. Archival pigment print, titular work from series. Available at The Art Design Project, Miami Beach.
The Broken Planet - Environmental Crisis Glass Sphere, 2020 by Zoltan Gerliczki
The Broken Planet, 2020
From the series "The Broken Planet"
Archival Pigment print
Limited Edition.
Unframed
Gerliczki was born in Nyíregyházain, Hungary in 1971 and he was raised in a Budapest orphanage during Hungary’s Communist regime. He is a filmmaker, painter, and computer artist who currently works as a graphic designer in Antwerp, London, Paris, and New York. As a graphic designer and post-production artist he has been involved with various publications including Elle Décor, House Beautiful, Zoo Magazine, Io Donna, Departures (US), Cosmopolitan (France), Paris Review, Travel & Leisure, and The Guardian UK, among others. Commercially, he has also been involved with Thierry Mugler, Christian Lacroix, Illy, and L’Artisan Parfumeur Paris, among others.
