blackbird online journal spring 2002 vol.1 no. 1

 

SARAH BEDNAREK  |  Patriot Series

   
 Patriot 1: Horatii    Patriot 2: Marat    Patriot 3: Napoleon

This series is an appropriation of Jacques-Louis David's 18th century paintings Oath of the Horatii, The Death of Marat, and Bonaparte Crossing the Alps at Grand-Saint-Bernard. I was thinking about David's flip-flopping in the wake of the highly contentious and bloody French Revolution. David was in many ways a propagandist; however, he produced this work for whichever regime happened to be in power at the time.

These works are made of torn apart stuffed animals sewn together in order to recreate images of the paintings. I am attempting to bring a melodramatic sense of the uncanny; you can see noses, paws, and eyeballs.  

 

 
 


   Acknowledgments
   Contributor's Notes