sale of the deathman

2013. Free-hand sculpted glass head, hands, arms, and foot, metal, fabric, epoxy resin, enamels, latex, found object, and silver paint.                                                      

40in H x 40in W x 52in D (100cm x 100cm x 130cm).               

Photo Credit: Karel De Bock.

About a month before the Benghazi attacks on September 11, 2012, I had visited the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels and seen the Death of Marat. I had the idea for Sale of a Deathman almost instantly after the visit, but I was not sure how to pursue the piece. A month later, on the night of the attacks, the news everywhere was that it was a riot caused by the idiotic youtube movie The Innocence of Muslims. That night, I was explaining the idea for this piece to some friends while we were watching the news about the attacks, and we started to discuss whether or not it was a good idea to make it. I began work on Deathman the next day. To be clear, the sculpture had never been about actual killing of Bin Laden, but the American reaction to the news.  People were dancing in the streets and holding parties outside of the White House.  I will not lie, I was relieved when the announcement came that Bin Laden was dead, but I was horrified by the reactions of people and use of a state sanctioned assassination as a selling point during a Presidential election.  At that moment, any discussion of a societal moral high ground was lost, at least temporarily.  On the day after the attacks, when I began the piece, I knew for me that it was not so much about Bin Laden, but about the conflicting perceptions people can have of individuals killed pursuing and defending dogmatic beliefs.

Sale of the Deathman is available through the studio.