The Scream! (my version as a commentary on current events) [View all]
Cross-posted in GD
I've been working on an art piece which captures my reaction to everything which has been going on since January 20 - appropriating Edvard Munch's "The Scream."
I've been feeling a lot like Munch - as he described the origin of his work: "I was walking along the road with two
friends – then the sun went down. Suddenly the sky turned blood-red – and I felt a breath of melancholy – an exhausting pain under my heart – I paused, leaning against the fence, tired to death – above the blue-black fjord and city there was blood in tongues of fire. My friends went on and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I felt that a great infinite scream went through nature"
The assignment was appropriation: intentionally borrowing, copying, and recontextualizing existing images, objects, or ideas into a new work of art. I've been wrestling with my current focus on artwork, as the world burns down around me - so it seemed appropriate to use this assignment to convey a political message. It is redone as a quilted piece - continuing a long history of using "women's work" to convey political messages in a way that is often more accessible than text (AIDS quilt, banners for women's suffrage, Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society, etc.)
I mentioned this piece in an earlier GD discussion regarding Musk's use of his kid as prop when the work was in process - so here it is complete. Musk can be seen in the top right (with his kid on his shoulders, just to the left of an article headline about him and his team accessing the child support database.
Munch's work (one of 4 versions) - for anyone not familiar with it: 
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