“The end of history” was proclaimed at the end of the cold war and the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall reminds us of the optimism that surrounded the end of the millenium. These prints were derived from that notion of history using the arrogance implicit in the thesis to fix my ideas. The premise of the theory asserted that the US had won the struggle with socialism and that democracy had achieved the utopia Marxists had forecast. This notion promulgated by the new Washington consensus justified American supremacy following the fall of communism when the unhindered goals of global capitalism seemed assured.
The following etchings however choose to unravel the threads that sought to promote the notion that history was now over. In 1912 Hardy saw the vaingloriousness of the age sunk by nature traveling through the undercurrents of the ocean. As with the Titanic our titanic historical hubris crashed against the reawakening of tribal violence. Without a grand narrative in Europe neighbors turned against each other allowing ancient grievances to re-surface.
The horror of ethnic cleansing was only surpassed by genocide of unspeakable atrocities that swept Africa. Finally, history came banging on the American front door and we found ourselves again waging a war against the most personal of violence, terrorism. History’s end and the poverty of small endless atrocities has caused us to withdraw into realms of self absorption and fascination. Universal politics have receded in the face of our own wounds that have become the personal narrative of this new age.
These etchings are about the Millennium and the intimate welding of history. The Titanic shook Hardy’s confidence in the power of industrialization. Two years later the globe witnessed the utter failure and naiveté of that world. But no sooner had the war been concluded than Woodrow Wilson claimed that history was over, autocracy vanquished, and the world was now “safe for democracy.” As he heralded unprecedented American arrogance his vision of the end of history was very pointedly refuted by the red and black apocalyptic vision of George Grosz and those brutally simple lined lithographs that showed the cruelty of man.
The etchings on this page use a panoramic format to tell stories and to construct a sense of space. The images were made in two sets and might yet be a format I continue to return to. The first set was made soon around the year 2000. The first was drawn from the point of view of Europe in the late 90’s as Eastern Europe began a period of ethnic violence. Also from that period I completed a plate that evoked the horrors of Africa during a period of violence in Central Africa that has since been labelled Africa’s “world” war.
A more recent set of images were completed recently when working in New York. At the centre of these pieces “Paris Texas” draws on the story of a psychologist who went to mosque, then a strip club, and then y a shooting spree on an American base. The picture presents the absurdity of this sequence of events within the the equally absurd war America is fighting against “terror.”
“Millenium” 12 x 24″ etching
“In a train…” 12 x 24″ etching
“Millenium #4″ 12 x 24” etching
“Paris Texas” 12 x 24″ etching
“Guatemala City” 12 x24″ etching
“I got a disability …” 12 x 24″ etching
“New World Order” 12 x 24″ etching
“Man in his movement” 18 x 36″ etching