Refugee Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Crisis? What Crisis? Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Amazon
Oil on canvas / 60cm x 60cm
False Flag Attack Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations
that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities
appear as though they are being carried out by individual
entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually
planned and executed them.
Lance deHaven-Smith states that "The term “false flag”
originally referred to pirate ships that flew flags of the home
countries of the ships they were approaching to attack and
board. The pirates used the false flag as a disguise to prevent
their victims from fleeing or preparing for battle. The term
today extends beyond naval encounters to include countries that
organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be
by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was
supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and
foreign military aggression."
Operations carried out during peace-time by civilian
organizations, as well as covert government agencies, can (by
extension) also be called false flag operations if they seek to
hide the real organization behind an operation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag
Spraymen
Digital illustration Notes:
Neonicotinoids: foliar spray uses confirmed as a risk to bees
Neonicotinoid pesticides applied as foliar sprays pose a risk to bees,
EFSA has confirmed. The Authority has published assessments on
the risks to bees from clothianidin, imidacloprid and
thiamethoxam for all uses other than seed treatments and
granules. In cases where the assessment could be completed, high
risks were either identified or could not be excluded. In other
cases the risk assessment could not be finalised due to data
gaps.
The conclusions are in line with those reached by EFSA two years
ago, when it assessed the risks to bees from the three
substances when used as seed treatments or granules. The
European Commission requested the assessments concerning all
other uses after imposing tighter restrictions on the use of
neonicotinoids in 2013. The use of the three substances in seed
or soil treatments is currently prohibited on crops attractive
to bees and on cereals other than winter cereals, except for
uses in greenhouses. Their use in foliar treatments is
prohibited on crops attractive to bees and on cereals, except in
greenhouses or after flowering.
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/150826
Colour Revolutions:
Orange Revolution - Ukraine, Green Revolution - Iran, Jeans
Revolution - Belarus Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
Colour revolution is a term that was widely used by worldwide
media to describe various related movements that developed in
several societies in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans
during the early 2000s. The term has also been applied to a
number of revolutions elsewhere, including in the Middle East.
Participants in the colour revolutions have mostly used
nonviolent resistance, also called civil resistance. Such
methods as demonstrations, strikes and interventions have been
intended protest against governments seen as corrupt and/or
authoritarian, and to advocate democracy; and they have also
created strong pressure for change. These movements generally
adopted a specific colour or flower as their symbol. The colour
revolutions are notable for the important role of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and particularly student
activists in organising creative non-violent resistance.
Government figures in Russia, such as Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have stated that
colour revolutions are a new form of warfare.
Death by State
(Alton Sterling, Sherman Evans, Philando Castile) Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes: Alton Sterling
On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was
shot several times at close range while held down on the ground
by two white Baton Rouge Police Department officers in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. Police were responding to a report that a man
in a red shirt was selling CDs, and that he had used a gun to
threaten someone outside a convenience store. The shooting was
recorded by multiple bystanders. The shooting led to protests in
Baton Rouge and a request for a civil rights investigation by
the U.S. Department of Justice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Alton_Sterling
Philando Castile
On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was fatally shot by Jeronimo
Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer, after being
pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. Castile was
driving a car with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her
four-year-old daughter as passengers when he was pulled over by
Yanez and another officer. According to Reynolds, after being
asked for his license and registration, Castile told the officer
he was licensed to carry a weapon and had one in the car.
Reynolds stated: "The officer said don't move. As he was putting
his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five
times." Diamond Reynolds live-streamed a video on Facebook in
the immediate aftermath of the shooting. It shows her
interacting with the armed officer as a mortally injured Castile
lay slumped over, moaning slightly and his left arm and side
bloody. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office ruled
Castile's death a homicide and said he had sustained multiple
gunshot wounds. The office reported that Castile died at 9:37
p.m. CDT in the emergency room of the Hennepin County Medical
Center, about 20 minutes after being shot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Philando_Castile
Sherman Evans
Police have released harrowing bodycam footage of the moment
officers fatally shoot a man who was allegedly pointing a weapon
at them. Sherman Evans, 63, was shot and killed by police
officers on Monday, June 27, in Washington DC. It was later
confirmed that the weapon was actually a BB gun. In the clip,
officers can clearly be heard pleading with Evans to drop his
weapon. The footage has been released after a black man, Alton
Sterling, was shot dead by police at close range in Louisiana ,
sparking protests across the US. On Wednesday, a woman in
Minnesota live streamed the moment her boyfriend, Philando
Castile, was shot dead by officers after police pulled them over
in their car. The most recent video, though, marks the first
time the Metropolitan Police Department has released bodycam
footage of an officer-involved shooting since they started using
the equipment in 2015, according to NBC Washington. According to
reports, police responded to an emergency call made at 10.22pm,
which was supposedly made by Mr Evans himself. Officers arrived
at the address in Northeast DC just three minutes later.One
policeman jumps out of his car and shouts: "Drop the
gun."Several other officers can be seen with their guns pointed
in Mr Evans' direction.They then plead with him to drop his
weapons, shouting: "Come on, sir! Put it down. We'll talk. We'll
talk."A police report suggests that at this point, Mr Evans
raised his gun and pointed it at officers before 15 shots were
fired.It is believed that five officers fired their weapons at
Mr Evans - and he was hit by at least three bullets. Immediately
after the shooting, officers rush over to Mr Evans and
immediately begin administering first aid.
He was taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center at 10.53pm
but was pronounced dead less than 20 minutes later.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/harrowing-police-bodycam-footage-shows-8376162
Humanitarian Warfare Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
Humanitarian bombing is a
phrase referring to the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia (24 March – 10 June 1999) during the
Kosovo War used by its opponents as an ironic oxymoron in
response to the stated goal of NATO to protect Kosovo Albanians,
and later about other military interventions stressing human
rights reasons. The closely related phrase humanitarian war
appeared at the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_bombing
Syrian Children
Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
(Based on images of children found dead on a
beach at the western Libyan coastal town of Zuwara.)
Notes:
The
tragedy comes less than a week after volunteers from the Libya
Red Crescent and concerned citizens from the western Libyan
coastal town of Zuwara scrambled to recover dozens of bodies
washed ashore after a boat carrying between 430 and 470 people
capsized a few miles off shore. Because the boat had capsized so
close to shore, the cadavers started washing up on the same day
of the accident. A crew from the Zuwara coastguard was returning
to port after sundown when they were called to a beach near the
town of Abu Kammash where five children were found dead.
http://migrantreport.org/more-dead-children-this-time-on-turkeys-beaches/
Death and Modernity:
Torture, Suicide Bomber and Aerial
Bombardment.
Oil on canvas /
450cm x 150cm
Notes: Interrogation
Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in
United Nations Convention Against Torture defines torture as:
Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or
mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes
as obtaining from him or a third person, information or a
confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has
committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating
or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on
discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is
inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or
acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an
official capacity.
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
Aftermath of Suicide Bomber, Morgue in Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in
A man looking for relatives at a morgue in Rawalpindi in
Pakistan after a suicide bombing in which at least 35 people
were killed and dozens more wounded in November 2009. Soldiers
and civilians had gathered outside a branch of the National Bank
of Pakistan to collect their monthly salaries and pension
payments when the bomb exploded.
Aerial Bombardment
Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in
Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949,
and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed
Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977
Art 51. - Protection of the civilian population
1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy
general protection against dangers arising from military
operations. To give effect to this protection, the following
rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of
international law, shall be observed in all circumstances. 2.
The civilian population as such, as well as individual
civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of
violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among
the civilian population are prohibited. 3. Civilians shall enjoy
the protection afforded by this section, unless and for such
time as they take a direct part in hostilities. 4.
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks
are: (a) those which are not directed at a specific military
objective; (b) those which employ a method or means of combat
which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or
(c) those which employ a method or means of combat the effects
of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and
consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike
military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without
distinction.
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/470-750065?OpenDocument
Slum World:
Mumbai, India / Nairobi, Kenya / Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Oil on canvas /
450cm x 150cm
Notes: Dharavi Slum,
Mumbai, India
Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in
While Dharavi has been featured in films such as Danny Boyle's
2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, the difficulties such as
sanitation issues, an inadequate water supply, overcrowding and
poverty faced by people who live there are some of the worst in
the world. It is estimated that around 1 million people live in
Dharavi making it one of the largest slums in Asia.
Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya
Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in
Kibera is the second largest urban slum in Africa (after Soweto
in South Africa) with a population estimated at between 600,000
and 1.2 million inhabitants. It is located in southwest
Nairobi, about 5 kilometers from the city centre. Improving the
situation for the people who live there has been beset by
problems such as petty and serious crime, difficult vehicle
access, and the lack of building foundations as much of the
ground is composed of refuse and rubbish.
Favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in
Many favelas in Rio de Janeiro are shanty towns built up the
side of hills with access only by stairs and narrow pathways.
They are affected by landslides in heavy rain and their
inhabitants regularly have to face the problems of drug wars and
petty crime. Many were constructed in the 1970s when a
construction boom attracted rural workers from poorer states in
Brazil. It is estimated that about 19 per cent of Rio de
Janeiro’s population is living in one of 600 favelas around the
city.
Recycling the
Poor:
Rubbish Dump Recycling, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Phone Recycling,
Dharavi slum, Mumbai, India and Ship Dismantling, Alang
Shipyard, India. Oil on canvas /
450cm x 150cm
Notes: Rubbish Dump
Recycling, Phnom
Penh, Cambodia Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in It is believed
that over 3000 scavengers live and work around the Stung
Meanchey municipal rubbish dump situated on the outskirts of
Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh. Many of the scavengers are
children who have to leave school to earn money for their
families. They work up to 14 hours a day looking for glass,
plastic, metal and any other materials which can be recycled.
Fumes from burning rubbish, dirty needles, flies and truck
accidents pose huge threats to the safety and health of the
workers there.
Phone Recycling,
Mumbai, India Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in In many slums
around Mumbai people worked in traditional industries such as
pottery and textiles. Now there is a growing recycling industry
processing waste from other parts of Mumbai. Many of these
industries are carried out in one-roomed factories manufacturing
products that are distributed globally. While there have been
some projects set up to improve living conditions, Dharavi
remains a source of cheap labor for local and foreign investors.
Ship Dismantling, Alang
Shipyard,
India
Oil on canvas 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1 in
Many ships such as supertankers, car ferries
and container ships are dismantled on the beach at Alang in the
state of Gujarat, on the west coast of India. Thousands of
people work in this industry and millions of tons of steel and
other materials are recovered and then sold as scrap. However,
it is a very dangerous business and the process maims and kills
many workers each year and the shoreline is contaminated with
oily waste, asbestos, toxic paint and other toxic materials.
Baltimore Riots Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
On April 12, 2015, Baltimore
Police Department officers arrested Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old
African American resident of Baltimore, Maryland. Gray sustained
injuries to his neck and spine while in transport in a police
vehicle. On April 18, 2015, after Gray's subsequent coma, the
residents of Baltimore protested in front of the Western
district police station. Gray died the following day, April 19,
2015, a week after the arrest.
Further protests were organized after Gray's death became public
knowledge, amid the police department's continuing inability to
adequately or consistently explain the events following the
arrest and the injuries. Spontaneous protests started after the
funeral service, although several included violent elements.
Civil unrest continued with at least twenty police officers
injured, at least 250 people arrested, 285 to 350 businesses
damaged, 150 vehicle fires, 60 structure fires, 27 drugstores
looted, thousands of police and Maryland National Guard troops
deployed, and with a state of emergency declared in the city
limits of Baltimore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Baltimore_protests
Blue Skies, Blue Seas, Blue Gloves:
Mediterranean Migrants Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
The European migrant crisis or European refugee crisis began in
2015, when a rising number of refugees and migrants made the
journey to the European Union (EU) to seek asylum, travelling
across the Mediterranean Sea or through Southeast Europe. They
came from areas such as Western and South Asia, Africa, and the
Western Balkans. According to the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, the top three nationalities of the
over one million Mediterranean Sea arrivals between January 2015
and March 2016 were Syrian (46.7%), Afghan (20.9%) and Iraqi
(9.4%). Of the refugees and migrants arriving in Europe by sea
in 2015, 58% were men, 17% women and 25% children. The number of
deaths at sea rose to record levels in April 2015, when five
boats carrying almost 2,000 migrants to Europe sank in the
Mediterranean Sea, with a combined death toll estimated at more
than 1,200 people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_migrant_crisis
Kathmandu Earthquake Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha
earthquake) killed nearly 9,000 people and injured nearly
22,000. It occurred at 11:56 Nepal Standard Time on 25 April,
with a magnitude of 7.8Mw or 8.1Ms and a maximum Mercalli
Intensity of IX (Violent). Its epicenter was east of Gorkha
District at Barpak, Gorkha, and its hypocenter was at a depth of
approximately 8.2 km (5.1 mi). It was the worst natural disaster
to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. The
ground motion recorded in Kathmandu valley was of low frequency
which, along with its occurrence at an hour where many people in
rural areas were working outdoors, decreased the loss of
property and human life.
Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless with entire
villages flattened, across many districts of the country.
Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO World Heritage
sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at the Kathmandu
Durbar Square, the Patan Durbar Square, the Bhaktapur Durbar
Square, the Changu Narayan Temple, the Boudhanath stupa and the
Swayambhunath Stupa. Geophysicists and other experts had warned
for decades that Nepal was vulnerable to a deadly earthquake,
particularly because of its geology, urbanization, and
architecture.
Disastrous events in very poor and politically paralyzed nations
such as Nepal often become a long drawn out chain of events, in
that one disaster feeds into another for years or even decades
upon end. The aftereffects from the earthquake have knock-on
effects on a myriad of seemingly unrelated aspects: human
trafficking, labour cost and availability, rental and property
cost burdens, urbanization, private and public debt burdens,
mental health, politics, tourism, disease, and damage to the
healthcare system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2015_Nepal_earthquake
Gaza Ambulance Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
The 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict also known as Operation Protective
Edge (Hebrew: Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, lit. "Operation Strong Cliff")
and sometimes referred to as the 2014 Gaza war, was a military
operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Hamas-ruled
Gaza Strip. Following the IDF Operation Brother's Keeper, Hamas
started rocket attacks, targeting Israeli cities and
infrastructure, resulting in seven weeks of Israeli operations.
The Israeli strikes, the Palestinian rocket attacks and the
ground fighting resulted in the death of thousands of people,
the vast majority of them Gazans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict
Media Studies, Libya Diptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 120cm / 23.6 in x 47 in
Notes: Muammar
Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, died on 20 October 2011
during the Battle of Sirte, aged c. 69. Gaddafi was found hiding
in a culvert west of Sirte and captured by National Transitional
Council forces. He was killed shortly afterwards. The NTC
initially claimed he died from injuries sustained in a firefight
when loyalist forces attempted to free him, although videos of
his last moments show rebel fighters beating him and one of them
sodomizing him with a bayonet before he was shot several times
as he shouted for his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Muammar_Gaddafi
In Greek mythology Medusa (Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress") was
a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human
female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place
of hair. Gazers on her face would turn to stone. Most sources
describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the
author Hyginus (Fabulae Preface) makes Medusa the daughter of
Gorgon and Ceto. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived
and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene.
The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her
somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers
originated her myth, as part of their religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa
Onlookers take photos and videos of the dying
Gaddafi. The eye of
Medusa is placed on the eye of the camera.
Climate Chaos Diptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 120cm / 23.6 in x 47 in
Notes: Climate
Chaos and... Resource Collapse
Of all of the big drivers for the next two decades, climate
chaos and resource collapse have the most complex interaction.
On the surface, it's clear that each can make the other worse:
agricultural collapse can push people to tear down rain forests
faster (both reducing a carbon sink and putting even more carbon
into the air by burning); greater storms & droughts can produce
massive refugee movements, overwhelming local resource bases;
drivers and industry looking for an alternative to oil pushing
for biofuels, driving up the cost of food; desperate communities
choosing survival over the careful maintenance of ecosystem
services. It's a truly vicious cycle.
http://www.openthefuture.com/2008/02/the_big_picture_climate_chaos.html
Australia Mining Diptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 120cm / 23.6 in x 47 in
Indigenous Peoples and Mining
Notes: The
relationship between indigenous peoples and mining is defined by
struggles over access to land. The interests of resource
industries, of course, lie in securing unfettered (as far as
possible) access to land and guaranteeing that access over the
longer term. This has sometimes meant quite heated campaigns
against the recognition of indigenous rights, not just to the
mineral resources or a share in the Wealth but against
indigenous rights to control over land.
This is not to say that no constructive engagement has occurred
between indigenous peoples and mining companies. Indeed the
generalization that indigenous people are always opposed to
development is mistaken. The basis of this assumption, however,
is a reflection of a more complex dynamic involving not just a
local indigenous community and a single resource developer, but
extending to the fundamental relationship between indigenous
peoples and the state in Australia and to the extent, or lack,
of recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples at a national
and state level.
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/australia/old-habits-die-hard-indigenous-land-rights-and-mi
Bangladeshi Factory Diptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 120cm / 23.6 in x 47 in
Notes:
The 2013 Savar building collapse or Rana Plaza collapse was a
structural failure that occurred on Wednesday, 24 April 2013 in
the Savar Upazila of Dhaka, Bangladesh, where an eight-story
commercial building named Rana Plaza collapsed. The search for
the dead ended on 13 May 2013 with a death toll of 1,129.
Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued from the
building alive. It is considered the deadliest garment-factory
accident in history, as well as the deadliest accidental
structural failure in modern human history.
The building contained clothing factories, a bank, apartments,
and several shops. The shops and the bank on the lower floors
immediately closed after cracks were discovered in the building.
The building's owners ignored warnings to avoid using the
building after cracks had appeared the day before. Garment
workers were ordered to return the following day, and the
building collapsed during the morning rush-hour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Savar_building_collapse
Mexican Border
Diptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 120cm / 23.6 in x 47 in
Notes: The
Mexico–United States border is an international boundary running
from Tijuana, Baja California, and Imperial Beach, California,
in the west to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, in
the east. This border, separating Mexico and the United States
from each other, traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from
major urban areas to uninhabitable deserts. It is the most
frequently crossed controlled international boundary in the
world, with approximately 350 million legal crossings being made
annually.
The total length of the continental border is 3,201 kilometers
(1,989 mi). From the Gulf of Mexico, it follows the course of
the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) to the border crossing at
Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas; westward from that
binational conurbation it crosses vast tracts of the Chihuahuan
and Sonoran Deserts to the Colorado River Delta, westward to the
binational conurbation of San Diego, California and Tijuana,
Baja California, before reaching the Pacific Ocean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico%E2%80%93United_States_border
Environ-mental: Climate Chaos and Pollution Oil on canvas /
120cm x 120cm / 47 in x 47 in
Notes: This
series of paintings entitled 'Environ-mental: Climate Chaos and
Pollution ' is based on a combination of the classical Greek
idea of the four elements (Air, Water, Fire and Earth) with
modern aspects of climate chaos that we are going through
currently. 'Environ-mental' refers to the 'mental' or crazy
aspect of the modern economy which proceeds regardless of the
effects of modern industrialisation on the global climate. As we
move from 'Global Warming' through 'Climate Change' to 'Climate
Chaos', we can see the terminology describing the effects of
human activity on the climate changing yet the underlying causes
seem to stay the same (or get worse) without any significant
sincere international effort to counter this problem.
'Part 1: Air' looks
at the effects of increased car ownership around the world is
having on air quality creating smog locally, and the effect of
greenhouse gas emissions on global warming from cars globally.
'Part 2: Water' notes the increased frequency of hurricanes
which cause flooding locally while at the same time the
increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causes
warming and more water to be evaporated from the ocean, leading,
it has been estimated, to ever more frequent and even more
intense hurricanes over the next century.
'Part 3: Fire' looks at the increasing frequency of wildfires
globally as warming intensifies areas with long hot summers in
hot and dry climates causing extensive damage to huge forested
areas (and thereby decreasing the tree-covered areas that act as
carbon dioxide sinks), while at the same time causing untold
damage to property and human life.
'Part 4: Earth' shows the devastating effects of pollution, a
by-product of carbon-based industrialisation (both in terms of
oil and oil-based products such as plastics) have on planet
earth and its wildlife especially in worst case scenarios such
as major oil spills, accidental or intentional. However, this
painting also shows the concern of people who are willing to
volunteer to clean up such environmental disasters despite
risking health problems, such as pulmonary, cardiovascular, and
chromosomal diseases.
This painting is based on the Prestige oil disaster: The
Prestige oil spill was an oil spill in Galicia caused by the
sinking of the oil tanker MV Prestige in 2002. The spill
polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline[1] and more than
one thousand beaches on the Spanish, French and Portuguese
coast, as well as causing great harm to the local fishing
industry. The spill is the largest environmental disaster in the
history of both Spain and Portugal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestige_oil_spill
War Triptych
Notes:
After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical
blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government
and the politically correct society:
1 - The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the
American influence sphere, the "First World".
2 - The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the
"Second World".
3 - The remaining three-quarters of the world's population,
states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the "Third
World."
(http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm)
The First World War was to a large extent the war of the First
World re-carving global markets with the intention of obtaining
a greater share for themselves. Trench warfare was the dominant
form with soldiers going over the top in waves of attacks or
risking being shot by their own officers if refusing to do so.
Although we don't hear the term so much now, the Second World
referred to the Soviet Union. In their desire to defeat the
Soviet Union politically and economically the capitalist powers
supported and funded the development of munitions factories in
Germany in the hope that Germany would become a springboard for
an attack on the Soviet Union. This the Nazis did do eventually
with a massive array of tanks and soldiers in a war that cost
the lives of 15 million soviet citizens.
It has been argued that the Third World war is actually upon us
though the superpowers have chosen to fight by proxy rather than
head on. In some cases direct intervention has been employed
provoking local reaction in the form of car bombs, the most
recent weapon in the asymmetric warfare between the weak and the
strong.
The
Struggle for Africa:
Ogaden, Ethiopia; Street Battles, The Congo
and Duékoué, Côte d'Ivoire Triptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 180cm / 23.6 in x 70.6 in
Notes:
China overtook the US as Africa's most prolific trading partner
back in 2009. Trade between the continent and Beijing stood at
over one hundred and twenty billion dollars as of 2010, with
China holding influence over the economies of multiple states,
not to mention the African Union (AU). What's marked African
politics in recent years is the growing competitiveness of the
far-off Chinese with a seemingly omnipresent US imperialism. And
the latter is well armed. Despite previous claims to only
operate a single base out of Djibouti, the United States African
Command (AFRICOM) currently fields a presence in over forty
nations, showing that talk of a "new scramble" for Africa,
albeit it this time with the old imperial powers of Europe
taking second place, may be well founded.
The late Vice Admiral Robert Moeller, an original pioneer of
current US military interests on the continent, went down on
record in 2008 for admitting AFRICOM was really about securing
"the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global
market." A year before, another American official, one Dr. J.
Peter Pham, as an advisor to the State Department, linked
AFRICOM objectives to “protecting access to hydrocarbons and
other strategic resources which Africa has in abundance." What
is revealing about this comment is that "other interested third
parties" were cited as being a direct threat to US interests on
the continent, with Russia, India and China coming in for
special mention. Aid from China leapt to $10 billion dollars
between 2009 and 2012, with Beijing upping the scale of outgoing
loans to various African nations precisely for infrastructure
development. As early as 2008, Africa commanded an impressive
9.8 percent of China's total foreign direct investment (FDI), a
sizeable figure and an apparently clear indication of Beijing's
drive to do serious business with African leaders.
http://www.towardfreedom.com/30-archives/africa/3910-the-new-imperial-scramble-for-africa-how-china-and-the-us-compete-over-africa-s-resources-and-labor
City Demonstrations: Madrid and Athens Diptych /
Oil on canvas /
60cm x 120cm / 23.6 in x 47 in
Notes: The
anti-austerity movement in Spain, also referred to as the 15-M
Movement (Spanish: Movimiento 15-M), the Indignados Movement,
and Take the Square had origins in social networks such as Real
Democracy NOW (Spanish: Democracia Real YA) or Youth Without a
Future (Spanish: Juventud Sin Futuro). and began with
demonstrations on 15 May 2011 close to the local and regional
elections, held on 22 May. Spanish media related the movement to
the economic crisis, Stéphane Hessel's Time for Outrage!, the
NEET-troubled generation and current demonstrations in the
Middle East and North Africa, Iran, Greece, and Portugal, as
well as the 2009 Icelandic demonstrations. Demonstrators
protested high unemployment rates, welfare cuts, Spanish
politicians, and the two-party system in Spain, as well as the
political system, capitalism, banks, and political corruption.
Many called for basic rights, of home, work, culture, health and
education.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-austerity_movement_in_Spain
The
anti-austerity movement in Greece involves a series of
demonstrations and general strikes taking place across the
country. The events, which began on 5 May 2010, were provoked by
plans to cut public spending and raise taxes as austerity
measures in exchange for a €110 billion bail-out, aimed at
solving the Greek government-debt crisis. Three people were
killed on 5 May in one of the largest demonstrations in Greece
since 1973. On 25 May 2011, anti-austerity activists organised
by the Direct Democracy Now! movement, known as the Indignant
Citizens Movement (Greek: Κίνημα Αγανακτισμένων Πολιτών, Kínima
Aganaktisménon-Politón), started demonstrating in major cities
across Greece. This second wave of demonstrations proved
different from the years before in that they are not partisan
and began through peaceful means. Some of the events later
turned violent, particularly in the capital city of Athens.
Inspired by the anti-austerity protests in Spain, these
demonstrations were organised entirely using social networking
sites, which earned it the nickname "May of Facebook". The
demonstrations and square sit-ins were officially ended when
municipal police removed demonstrators from Thessaloniki's White
Tower square on 7 August 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-austerity_movement_in_Greece
Mustard
Gas
Oil on canvas / 50cm x 60cm / 19.7 in x 23.6 in
Notes: The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms
control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and
use of chemical weapons. Its full name is the Convention on the
Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use
of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. The agreement is
administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW), which is an independent organization based in
The Hague, Netherlands.
Immigrant
Oil on canvas / 50cm x 60cm / 19.7 in x 23.6 in
Notes:
"The Civil Guard takes charge of a drowned man in Santa Pola,
Alicante, as the search for his companions continued. The body,
which was of an Algerian immigrant, was found 15 miles from the
island of Tabarca, Alicante, Spain."
[El Pais 13 August 2010]
Massacre Marketing
Oil on canvas / 50cm x 60cm / 19.7 in x 23.6 in
Notes: Massacre
marketing: Killing people on
purpose in order to incite worldwide public opinion particularly
by getting an opposing group blamed for the killing.
Drone Victim,
Pakistan
Oil on canvas / 60cm x 60cm / 23.6 in x 23.6 in
Notes:
Leaked military documents
reveal that the vast majority of people killed [in drone
attacks] have not been the intended targets, with approximately
13% of deaths being the intended targets, 81% being other
militants, and 6% being civilians. Pakistan's Prime Minister,
Nawaz Sharif, has repeatedly demanded an end to the strikes,
stating: "The use of drones is not only a continual violation of
our territorial integrity but also detrimental to our resolve
and efforts at eliminating terrorism from our country".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_strikes_in_Pakistan
Room
Without a View
Oil on canvas / 60cm x 80cm / 23.6 in x
31.5
in
Notes:
The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which is currently
in force since June 26, 1987, provides a broad definition of
torture. Article 1.1 of the UN Convention Against Torture reads:
"For the purpose of this Convention, the term "torture" means
any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or
mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes
as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a
confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has
committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating
or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on
discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is
inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or
acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an
official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising
only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture#UN_Convention_Against_Torture
The Bullet and the Damage Done
Cairo Demonstrators, Egypt
Oil on canvas / 70cm x 100cm / 27.6 in x 39.4
in
Notes: The Egyptian
revolution of 2011, locally known as the January 25 Revolution
(Egyptian Arabic: ثورة 25 يناير; Thawret 25 yanāyir), began on
25 January 2011 and took place across all of Egypt. It consisted
of demonstrations, marches, occupations of plazas, riots,
non-violent civil resistance, acts of civil disobedience and
strikes. Millions of protesters from a range of socio-economic
and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak. The revolution included Islamic,
liberal, anti-capitalist, nationalist and feminist elements.
Violent clashes between security forces and protesters resulted
in at least 846 people killed and over 6,000 injured. Protesters
burned over 90 police stations. The protests took place in
Cairo, Alexandria and other cities.
The Egyptian protesters' grievances focused on legal and
political issues, including police brutality, state-of-emergency
laws, lack of free elections and freedom of speech, corruption,
and economic issues including high unemployment, food-price
inflation and low wages. The protesters' primary demands were
the end of the Mubarak regime and emergency law, freedom,
justice, a responsive non-military government and a voice in
managing Egypt's resources. Strikes by labour unions added to
the pressure on government officials.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revolution_of_2011
Hommage à Haiti
Oil on canvas
/ 150cm x 150cm / 59.1 in x 59.1
in
Notes: When French commissioner Léger Felicité
Sonthonx arrived on the island [of Haiti] in 1791, he faced a
full scale rebellion by the white aristocracy and had to use an
army of local slaves to put them down. The leader of this army
would become one of the greatest generals in history. This
self-educated Haitian General’s name was Toussaint Louverture.
After putting down the landowners, Louverture liberated the
entire slave population. Louverture and the Black Jacobins
successfully defeated the French occupiers and Haiti became the
first free black nation in the world.
[from
France and the History of Haiti by Gearóid Ó Colmáin]
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