OBJKTS and ARTIFAKTS 2022: Doll Parts / Roots of Empire

"Doll Parts / Roots of Empire" 1/1 Ink Drawing by HP LoveBux Pens and Brushed Ink on Paper For TEZOS #1of1 Event

NOTES:

We call Alexander the Great: "GREAT" — but his campaigns he destroyed and sacked city upon city resulting in the death displacement or enslavement countless thousands of non-combatant people and families.

So why do we still say he is GREAT?

What does that say about US?

This 1/1 Ink Drawing tries to highlight an inherent contradiction in which eras and empires of civilization & high culture are inevitably rooted in forceable conquest and the domination of the powerless by the powerful. Gleaming icons of beauty and accomplishment, such as statues or cities may arise, but they stand upon grounds that were taken by force deception or worse. In this image the soulless buildings and the sensual statue of Aphrodite can be seen as ironically similar constructs, where resources are dominated to be set up and erected for a new purpose memorializing the temporal and material power of those who put them in place.

The faces and arms below the statue can be seen as the unsung hands minds & voices of individuals who were never given the chance to be in the seats of hegemonic power, but whose lives were ever under it's sway — generations who were deserving of every portion of respect esteem and dignity that those power structures denied them.

This artwork challenges the viewer to ask whether perhaps every great civilization or center of arts architecture & culture is built upon the total subjugation displacement or replacement of a prior population who inhabited that region, and whether this has been true all over the globe for countless centuries across all branches of the human family?

If sadly, the natural state of humanity for the majority of our collective memory has been feudalism ... do now we believe that promises made about WEB3 and the Metaverse are somehow going to be able to guide us to a different outcome? Or will hegemonic power structures attain new yet familiar forms and the costly roots of empire over many by the few continue on?

There is no clear answer to this dilemna — the foundation of civilizations and high culture in broad sweeping acts of inhumane brutality — but the broken dolls of Greece and Rome that line the halls of our Museums today, and are enduring emblems reminding us that violent acts which nourish the roots of Empire remain quite the same today. The digital empires of tomorrow, may unfold long quite similar lines if we refuse to look at this very painful reality.

I hope you enjoy this work,

HP LoveBux 6/27/22