2013 • 53″ x 35.5″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets
I made this for a show celebrating the release of that awful new Wizard of Oz movie in the spring of 2013.
I love starting with a theme. In this case I researched the meanings and symbols in the original movie and the books it was based off of. Very much an allegory for the plight of farmers and factory workers, I starting thinking about all the reforms and subsidies that were put in place to ease the uncertainty of markets for Americas farmers and how over time they have been taken advantage of my larger and larger corporate factory farms.
Symbols and associations aren’t always “this equals that” in the mind of a writer or other creative person, but reading about these interpretations led me to my own associations about the book, the movie, their symbols and how people see the subjects they represent.
This A Monetary Reformer’s Brief Symbol Glossary was interesting:
Interpretations vary, particularly on the lesser figures, but this will give the readers good reference points to begin their consideration of the matter. Was the symbolism consciously or subconsciously employed? We cannot know with certainty, nor does it really matter. What matters is that Baum understood the issues involved and employed them in Oz. Millions of Americans have seen Oz, generally several times. Knowingly or not, Oz has given us a key to understanding the solutions to the economic issues we face in our time if we could only accept that we have had the power to regain our bank-mortgaged homes all along.
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