The line between propaganda and advertising is a thin one. Star Power presents the viewer with a series of ads that mix communist iconography and images of hydro electricity. Bold and visually stopping the images further confuse the question of who is in control of electrical power in Ontario: Is it some far left consortium, or is a company simply borrowing the radical chic of Soviet design as part of an ad campaign? Plastered onto construction hoarding in downtown Kitchener and installed as ads inside local buses, determining the origin and intent of the images will prove difficult.

 

Adrian Göllner is a contemporary artist living in Ottawa. Combining disparate interests in advertising, abstraction, and the Cold War, Göllner employs commercial design standards in the creation of site specific artworks that defy easy interpretation. Göllner received a BFA from Queen's University in 1987.