Suspense Pulp

SUSPENSE | PULP series

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Suspense, Pulp series is a work consisting of six digital prints on mirror perspex 30x30 cm each created in 2017 for a couple of group exhibitions >> Fabula Incroci and >> Big Deal

This work is stimulated by the comics and by the science fiction film production of the 1950s which reflects the terrors of time by constructing the figure of the alien monster, invader from sidereal spaces.

The reference to the pulp is intended as a connection to the poverty of the paper of the first comics, to its graininess, to its being "dirty" as is also the effect of these digital prints.

Suspense Pulp represents a critical analysis of contemporary society through the filter of 1950s popular culture. The author, is inspired by the comic books and science fiction films of that era, which were able to capture and amplify the collective fears of a society immersed in the tense climate of the Cold War.

In the 1950s, the imagery of the invading alien from deep space was not just a simple fantasy creation, but a powerful metaphor for the deepest fears of Western society. Hollywood, with its immense power to influence the masses, created the alien-monster as a visual and narrative representation of communism, particularly Soviet communism. This “monster” was not only external, a foreign invader threatening from without, but also internal, embodied in the “Reds” hidden in the ranks of American citizens themselves, as the paranoia of McCarthyism suggested.

Promotional posters for these films often depicted aliens at the moment of abduction of defenseless young women, iconic representations that mixed sexuality, vulnerability, and terror. These images not only aroused fear, but solidified the idea of an alien menace as an absolute enemy, an entity that had to be destroyed to protect civilized society and its values.

Morucchio, with Suspense Pulp, transposes this visual and metaphorical language into the present, creating a parallel between past and contemporary propaganda. Today, the “alien threat” is no longer the communist, but anyone who dares to challenge the dominant narrative imposed by political elites and globalized media. Globalist mainstream propaganda, just like Hollywood in the 1950s, constructs new enemies, new “aliens” to be despised and feared. 

These new “aliens” are not beings from other worlds, but individuals, groups or nations who oppose or challenge the prevailing ideology. Anyone who does not conform to the expectations and directives of the dominant system is turned, through media distortion, into a public enemy. Diversity of thought, criticism and disobedience are thus alienated, transformed into something dangerous and subversive, exactly as was the case with communism during the Cold War period.

Morucchio's work thus reflects on how fear and propaganda are powerful and recurrent tools throughout history, used to manipulate public opinion and maintain social control. The parallel between the alien-monster of the 1950s and the “new aliens” of the present invites us to critically consider how we perceive and react to the threats posed by the dominant media and institutions. Suspense Pulp thus becomes a work of denunciation and reflection, a reminder not to fall victim to the same dynamics of fear and hatred that have characterized past eras.