FAÇADES

2023

42” x 35.5”

Oil, acrylic, shellac, cement, hardware cloth, cheesecloth, gold leaf, printed photographs on paper on wood

This was my first and only ‘Los Angeles’ painting and deals with one of my recurring preoccupations and inquiries, that of propaganda, the limits of propaganda and film as a unique and dangerous medium for it. This connected with my recent discovery several years ago about LA’s dark history during the war and the numerous fascist and Nazi-sympathizing communities here—seeing images of downtown LA and parks in La Canada with swastika flags was quite shocking. This connected with later on, the incident of Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks and the incident on the 405 freeway with antisemites throwing paper flyers. These and the often unquestioned notions of film’s unique power to manipulate and be used as propaganda led me to embedding multiple layers within concrete including fragments of still images from Leni Reifenstahl’s Triumph of the Will and chiseling it out—again here the notion of history’s ghosts looking back at us and the need to confront these pasts.