The art of Mladen Stilinović can be said to have two sides. One, in a critical, yet humorous, ironic, and often poetic way, deals with the issues of social power and the position of the poor and exploited. The other speaks about issues beyond reason and language: pain, emptiness, death, nothingness. This aspect is often represented by his use of white (sometimes on a white background), which is an explicit reference to the tradition of avant-garde art, especially that of Malevich. In his Geometry of Cakes he uses references to Russian avant-garde art as well as to the everyday world of modern poor classes, especially factory workers. The basic issue here is the relationship of food, poverty and power. “He that will not work shall not eat” runs a proverb; this sentence is a transformation of an essential demand of the power system into a “generally valid” moral norm. To eat (or to entertain oneself with the cheap glamour and luxury of the pastry shops) simply means to restore oneself sufficiently to be able to continue to work. In such a way, the social and economic powers can control the workers, keep them working, and profit from their labour.
