Abstract
These are a series of banners, made using the heraldic language of the escutcheon to access meditation on debt. Debt exists in society as a very strong motivating force, but it also hides in plain sight. In this way, we can say that debt exists in society as a corollary of religion. The churches and creeds of religions reflect spaces of veneration and documentation of debt. Banks and annual reports are the public face of finance - the substructure of debt. The resonance between these social forces is not happenstance. Debt can mirror religion because it relies on the same principle of personal responsibility. These artworks are a lamination of symbolic forms that mimic the aesthetic norms of an heraldic symbolic arrangement. It is both a celebration and a warning. The visual heraldic forms of escutcheon, banners, and symbols amalgamate to produce a universally legible signifier of wealth. In these artworks, I am directly addressing the lineage and contemporary effects of debt and finance, the creation of obscene wealth, and concentrated power gained historically through violence that is celebrated through popular media and exists today in more insidious forms that no longer need to enact physical violence. Debt and finance can instead enforce a new type of violence through the seductive faces of mass consumption. The early usage of heraldic messaging and what it has meant has moved on so successfully from direct violence that we have necessarily become complicit in our own peony - often to meet our basic needs
Presenters
Andrew Lee MountAssociate Professor of Art and Art Education, Art and Art History, Saint Mary's College of California, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
BANNERS, HERALDRY, ESCUTCHEON, CHARGES, FORM, SOCIALIZED DEBT, FINANCE, PEONY, POVERTY
