1) Nicaragua 2) Hawaii 3) Puerto Rico 4) Cuba 5) Philippines 6) Honduras 7) Guatemala 8) Iran 9) Vietnam 10) Chile 11) Grenada 12) Panama 13) Afghanistan 14) Iraq
The Context of the Overthrow Series
Overthrow represents fourteen instances in which the U.S. has overthrown the head of state of a foreign country. These works draw much inspiration and information from a book by the journalist Stephen Kinzer: Overthrow—America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. The series is painted after the style of retablos, a type of devotional painting with roots in the European middle ages and often seen in Latin America, whereby the artist becomes a faithful recorder of events, as told by the protagonist. The images describe or point to events and conditions surrounding regime change; the integrated text gives voice to the deposed or otherwise reflects on the intervention. These paintings do not include holy figures, as do traditional retablos. Rather they allude to the psychic trauma inflicted on the nation, commemorating the grief and loss of those whose government was overthrown.
All the paintings are oil on wood and 25x33cm (except Honduras, which is 25x30.5cm), and they were completed between 2006 and 2007.) Any errors of fact or interpretation in these works are entirely my own. For a longer discussion of these works, go to the Blog page of this website.
