If we think of what might be a universal language, one that the whole world can understand, what would we think of? Perhaps English or, even better, gestures and facial expressions. If by language we also mean products or cultural habits, one of the most popular ones and one that gathers the most people around it is football. To date it is the most popular sport worldwide, a large part of the world’s population understands its rules and glues millions of people in front of the screen, creating a sense of tribal belonging. Thus, soccer could be said to be a cultural binder, a language spoken universally. It is precisely these kinds of feelings that illustrator Joe Prytherch, better known as Mason London, seeks out to create his works. Situations that many people have experienced at least once, scenes that tell a story that people can recognize and that can evoke immediate emotions in viewers. “I think if people recognize a situation or a feeling they identify with in a drawing, then it can be powerful – like evoking a kind of nostalgia,” says Mason himself.
In the series of illustrations in this article, the same pattern is repeated: a screen (television or computer) is placed in the center and reproduces a soccer game. The screen becomes the centerpiece of the composition and the protagonist of the scene, around which the entire visual narrative proposed by Mason revolves. Each illustration takes the viewer around the world: from Italy, where a television set is resting on a bar counter, to Argentina, where a couple watches the game on a balcony while meat cooks on a grill. Or even further to China, where a screen is placed on the counter of a restaurant.
Each nation is clearly recognizable-Mason London inserts typical stereotypes of each country (the grill for Argentina, colorful half-sleeved shirts for Mexico, a restaurant with lanterns for China..) done with extreme meticulousness and with special attention to detail. These amusing illustrations make it clear how the world, however wide, can be so similar in habits and customs, even miles apart.
