EXTERMINATORS

Exterminators, pen on print paper, variable dimensions, 2006, courtesy of the artist

Exterminators is a series of charcoal drawings over the handwritten proof roll of Albanian artist Fani Zguro’s story collection “Mr. Dosti”. Straight out of heavy metal’s imagery, straight out of skulls, teeth and sunglasses sole witnesses of the presence of a body, Fani Zguro’s exterminators are also featured in some of William Burroughs’ hallucinated stories. Like dried-up bugs buried within the roll’s papers, the exterminators’ reflectumorous features come scarring Mr Dosti and his brothers. They prevent onlookers from reading, as they prevent the writer from pursuing the story of The Man Who… There’s no more ending, there’s no more end, there’s no more hope nor blood in the vessels; all vision is exterminated… I didn’t want anyone to care about the rolls I kept arranging at night as library cards for suckling mice… yet the vaudeville brother withdrew entwining dark presences, invisible to me… In many occasions did I witness such mouth-agape rites… A few minutes later they chit-chatted calmly, checking the cards while exterminators poured in… I used my car, a black Ford V8, working on my own, carrying my pirethrum spray cans and my fluoride bulbs up and down the stairways… “Exterminator! Any need for my job?”

Alberto Pesavento