A legal killing spree

"When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it really doesn’t have any effect."

— Andy Warhol

Warhol was an avid collector of newspapers, magazines and tabloids. He appropriated and manipulated the sometimes downright lurid news imagery to create his art, and this was the basis of his Death and Disasters series, which he started in 1962 (and which happens to be my favourite part of his oeuvre). Car crashes, people jumping to their deaths, race riots, as well as the sinister inside of the Sing Sing penitentiary execution chamber. Warhol extracted these images from their journalistic context and used them repeatedly to make his point about the desensitisation of the masses.

Although this work lacks any human presence or evidence of violence, I think it conveys all the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty. There is a haunting stillness to it, a chilling sense of unseen terror. A sign reads 'silence'. Why? So we can hear the agonising screams of the prisoners? Was this photo taken before or after the execution? Who was last? Who is next? As it's often the case, what we do not see suggests more than what we do.

Capital punishment is the great grandchild of slavery, that's where it has its ugly roots. And the Bible Belt is also the death belt, that is no coincidence - it matches the area of the former southern confederate states. As the use of the death penalty in the US is shrinking, the Trump administration decided to restart federal executions. Since July last year, 11 people have been put to their deaths, with 2 more on the list before Trump FINALLY leaves office. This means he has executed more federal inmates than the last 10 presidents combined. After a de facto moratorium of 17 years, this is a decision that smacks of desperation. In the dying days of his administration, the president has embarked on a killing spree of unprecedented proportions, pandering to the most extreme fringes of his own base, the same people we saw climb the Capitol last week.

#andywarhol #electricchair #deathpenalty #capitalpunishment #america #justice #blog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Andy Warhol

Electric Chair, 1964

Photo credit The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society

May Steven's Dark Flag

"Political activity does not interfere with my work, it feeds it. And if I'm interested in racism and fighting racism, then that should show up—will show up—in my work.” - May Stevens

A committed civil-rights activist and feminist, between 1967 and 1976 Stevens produced a series of paintings called Big Daddy, where she addressed and channelled her anger towards her own father's racist views. Painted at the end of that period, Dark Flag marks the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It is however not a celebration, the artists here was casting a critical look at the symbolic value of the star spangled banner and the uglier manifestations of patriotism, nationalism and white supremacy.

I like the haunting ambiguity of this image, I am gripped by its intensity and tension. Three sitting figures shrouded in the American flag. Hard to say whether they are mourning, silently protesting injustice or grieving the loss of something or someone important in their lives.

Forty-five years on, look at how still painfully relevant this work is. How many of these flags against the grey sky have seen on our screens over the past couple of days? They have become the tragic symbol of the violent culmination of years of hateful rhetoric and relentless falsehoods. Fanning old, very old, racial hatred and emboldening racists and bigots. Very dark flags, indeed. And to everyone who has said that what happened on Capitol Hill on January 6th 'is not America', I say: Mate, you have not been paying attention. That IS America.

#maystevens #femaleartist #americanartist #painting #contemporaryart #activisim #racism #americanflag #starspangledbanner #america #artblog #blogger #beyondthecanvasblog

May Stevens (1924-2019)

Dark Flag, 1976

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

© May Stevens, courtesy the estate of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York

Kim Abeles' Smog Collectors

"The Smog Collectors materialize the reality of the air we breathe. I place cut, stencilled images on transparent or opaque plates or fabric, then leave these on the roof of my studio and let the particulate matter in the heavy air fall upon them. After a period of time, from four days to a month, the stencil is removed and the image is revealed in smog." - Kim Abeles

Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have burned over 4 million acres in California, with 5,000 firefighters battling as many as 22 wildfires every day. It's a chilling record to which we need to add the human, i.e. the number of people evacuated and the millions breathing unhealthy air, as well as the incalculable animal toll.

Los Angeles-based artist Kim Abeles has been addressing the urgency and gravity of the environmental issue since she started her Smog Collectors series in 1987. This project began with portrait plates of US presidents, each with a stenciled picture of the men's face and a statement they made about the environment. The darker the face, the worse their record on the subject - Abeles made sure they were left outside in the polluted air for longer to reflect that.

Over 30 years later, Abeles returned to the Smog Collectors expanding their reach to the international level. This time the plates portray ten world leaders, and each of them is inscribed with a quote from their speeches at the world climate summits held between 2011 and 2018. These gold-rimmed plates, made in the guise of tacky souvenirs, carry a sobering message. The leaders may be smiling, but how many of the promises they made did they keep? What is their legacy going to be? These plates are a call to action, a reminder that a lot has been said, but not enough has been done. These plates, covered in soot, words and truth, demand accountability.

Special thank you to my dear friend Alice-May for introducing me to this artist and her compelling work.

#kimabeles #smog #wildfires #environment #environmentalactivism #conceptualart #contemporaryart #femaleartist #artblog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

The 10 most powerful world leaders and their statements in smog (2019-2020)

Photos courtesy of the artist