“Feeding of the 320 Millions, The Revolution Will Not Be Privatized”
This is my response to the Occupy Wall Street movement, support by the WhiteSpace Collection in Palm Beach, Florida. They are gonna print out 1000 Limited Editions of these posters in 18X24 and pass them out for free if you visit them in person.
More info here: http://whitespacecollection.com/specialprojects201112.html
Here’s the description of the piece:
“Feeding of the 320 Millions, The Revolution Will Not Be Privatized” explores the ideology of the term “Revolution” in modern days America. Through deconstructing Eugène Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”, the artwork is meant to be a time capsule of this period in American history.
I have always admired the collage works of John Heartfield, Martha Rosler, Winston Smith and the Grapus collective. It is not easy to create art works that have social conscience and convey the messages successfully. In this piece, I apply various techniques including détournement, remixes and culture jamming to poise questions of our daily lives values- e.g. the shopping cart that contains genetically modified food like “Killer Strawberries” and BT Coin grenade; the “Foreclosure Next Exit” highway sign with “Stop War” graffiti in “Star War” typeface; the broken piggy bank underneath Lady Liberty’s Blackspot sneakers… etc.
The characters reflect different perceptions of the idea of “Revolution”. Uncle Sam tried his best to fight the unemployment and the economy in a peaceful manner. The Guy Fawkes masked protester believes in taking the issues in his own hand, in the name of “Dissent is Patriotic”. The American bald eagle as the majority consumers waiting for a Change to come while popping pills for a short-term fix for our problems. With the latest news about the rising unemployment and foreclosure rate, the Tea Party and taxation debate, Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement, I hope to promote a peaceful revolution through counter-balancing the different ideologies of creating a social change. We are the people we have been waiting for!
