Book cover for La Fievre
Les Editions Du Pacebot is a small collective press that publishes works of high literary quality. I was asked to create a series of images in response to Wallace Shawn's play The Fever for a forthcoming French translation of the work. The images in this group are the ones used in the book. For more information and to order books from the catalogue please follow this link.
Laura Hanging
2013, mixed media and wax on panel, 10" x 8"
When I read The Fever by Wallace Shawn, I was immediately captured by the image of the man going to the electric chair, which led me to reflect on all the ways we kill people; lethal injection, firing squad, torture, hanging, and all the ways governments often try to present themselves as being above such brutality “We would never do such things. That could never happen here.” And yet, between 1880 and 1955 at least 5,000 people were lynched in the U.S., most male, most African American and often their crime was simply that they existed. These deaths were celebrated. Photographs were taken and “victory” postcards made, sold and mailed to commemorate the taking of these lives. One of the first things that struck me about the images of lynchings is how alive the people still seem to be when their bodies are isolated from the tree or bridge where they died. It is uncanny how the people hang so peacefully, floating above the ground and yet are so heavy with our knowledge of their deaths. Isolating the figures and incorporating them into abstract paintings I hope to bring new life to lives that the history books would rather forget.
La Fievre
Les Editions Du Pacebot is a small collective press that publishes works of high literary quality. I was asked to create a series of images in response to Wallace Shawn's play The Fever that is forthcoming in a French translation. For more information and to order books from the catalogue please follow this link.