Any man whose heart does not leap upon seeing George Washington astride a Roc-sized bald eagle as he wields an RPG is either dead or un-American. Stephen Colbert needs this kind of imagery in the Colbert Report's opening credits.
The surrealism increases:
What rough beast, its hour come 'round at last, wriggles in the arms of the Father of the Country?
This scene reminds us that Washington is one of the few presidents to have killed another man in close-quarters combat. George should play hurly-burly with the head of Hitler. Stalin's noggin should be mounted above the gates of the White House.
V.I. Lenin wearing Washington's mask. A subtle comment on the Trotskyite roots of pompously patriotic neo-conservatives? An intimation that the monetary system is communist plot? Nah, it's just a creepy portrait.
I don't think Americans could produce so extreme a parody of monumental art, though they certainly can commission it. Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid developed these paintings for the 1998 opera Naked Revolution. The artists' home page links to more photos from the opera. Local coverage of the art collection, whose owner lives in Denver, is found in the Rocky Mountain News and in Westword.
3 comments:
Mr. Jones writes : "Any man whose heart does not leap upon seeing George Washington astride a Roc-sized bald eagle as he wields an RPG is either dead or un-American."
I must not be an American because my heart didn't stir in the least. Although I did occur to me that most Americans who mistake federal foreign aggression for society because they have inured via nation media to think globally as if it was locally would be all hearts a pitter pattering thinking "go get em george with some shock and awe".
Mr. Jones writes : "Lenin wearing Washington's mask. A subtle comment on the Trotskyite roots of pompously patriotic neo-conservatives?"
Why not a "subtle comment" on virtually all Americans accepting communism in principle. While there is the marked difference:
In it's embrace of man's existence for the good of the flesh, the West has likewise embraced a sentimental crossless Christ. While the communist East in its embraced man's existence for the good of the state, embraced a Christless Cross.
But both in principle embrace materialism and socialism, and the nation-state.
"I must not be an American because my heart didn't stir in the least."
That was a bit of satire on my part, of course.
Post a Comment