Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Poster of the Week


Places the U.S. Has Bombed
Josh MacPhee
2004
Silkscreen

“I created this poster soon after the United States started bombing Afghanistan. Once again the government was attacking a country for its own foreign policy concerns. Around that time I stumbled upon a list of places the U.S. had bombed since World War II, compiled by the author William Blum. I was shocked by how long the list was and the dozens of countries on it that I had no idea the U.S. had attacked. I think the most successful posters use simple, strong images and text to convey a basic idea, and that’s what I was trying to do here. The sheer volume of bombs is shocking when you realize each one represents a country attacked. For me, art finds meaning in social context, and our contemporary context often seems bleak. I find it imperative to try to comment on it, to speak to the world around me, to criticize what I find is wrong, and put forth ideas of what a better world could look like.”

Artwork © 2007 Josh MacPhee
www.justseeds.org

No comments:

Post a Comment