The second part is surprising - the story is told from a different perspective, and the protagonists look different. Quotes from the press, and notes from criminal records, as well as drawings based on images from the Internet are all part of the description which takes us step by step through this authentic story. We find out who the couple was, and we get to know their real names. It seems as if everything is told now, and the impression is made all the stronger with three pages from the original diary of the boy, recovered by the police.
In the book, which was released simultaneously in Poland and in the US, Sasnal attempts to reconstruct the missing pages of the American twenty year old's diary. In the story, not only does he touch upon the theme of today's generation, now entering adulthood, but he also addresses the issue of post-colonialism. The story takes place in Hawaii, which was taken over by the United States in the late 19th century. Sasnal points to the ambiguous relations between the former colonizers and the colonized. That is why Lava seems to be a universal and shocking documentation which depicts not only cultural and political violence, but also its domestic face.
The American release of Lava was accompanied by an exhibition under the same title, hosted by the Anton Kern Gallery in New York City. Ink drawings on paper were on display, with images described in the book, such as the foot of an indigenous man, ropes, and a twisted flow of lava.
Wilhelm Sasnal
"Lawa" (Lava)
Published by: Wilhelm Sasnal, Anton Kern Gallery in New York, Fundacja Galerii Foksal in Warsaw
ISBN: 978-83-89392-27-4
Author: Agnieszka Sural, 11.07.2014, translated by Paulina Schlosser, 16/07/2014