Protest Prints
My current body of work appropriates and re-presents images used in popular ephemera of the 1900s, such as travel brochures and print advertisements. The idealized images that these sources featured are modified or expanded, while new figures, drawn from photographs of protests, serve as a literal disruptive presence on top of the nostalgic original. It is the harsh contrast between the idyllic background scene and the precarious positions of the inserted figures that serves to disturb the sentimental backdrop and remind us of our right to protest. The black and white woodblock prints are technically and visually appealing, drawing the viewer in to further explore my underlying criticism of the nostalgia depicted, which is also expressed in the irony of the titles that are partly or entirely borrowed from the initial commercial sources.