Statement
Kathleen Campbell
In this work, I use the traditional spiritual iconography of Western civilization as a metaphor for its potential destruction. The images create a triptych. The first piece contains a copy of a painting by Piero della Francesca entitled, The Battle of Constantine. An ominous black bird is drawn on a waving flag. The figure, holding a sword, is meant to resemble the Archangel Michael from Van Eyck's The Last Judgment. In the middle photograph, the Madonna wears a black headdress instead of the traditional blue -- and holds black ribbons which stream over her belly. She looks at the viewer in alarm. Things are exploding violently around her. Blake's God figure from The Prophecy of Europe is in the upper right corner. The third shows Eve holding the apple. The gesture of her right hand echoes that of the snake from Michelangelo's The Fall of Man. This figure is wrapped around a tree, anxiously pointing at the center panel. Here, figures from Western art history warn us of the future that awaits us if we fail to control our destructive impulses.
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