bounty hunt (2024)
oil on canvas
9 x 47 inches
This piece was created during my exchange semester at the Universität der Künste Berlin as a statement on the corporations profiting from the ongoing genocide against Palestinians. All artist proceeds from the sale of this print will be donated to mutual aid funds for families in Gaza.
process
The format of this project was unconventional, which meant I needed to figure out the composition at a smaller scale before I began working on the large canvas. Since the dimensions and color were both constraints set by my atelier, I knew the composition needed to do a lot of heavy lifting. I worked it out in a sketchbook with conté crayon, then gridded it to transfer to the canvas.
Since the painting was already required to be monochrome, I decided that a grisaille would be the easiest method to establish the values while maintaining a single saturation and hue. I finished the piece with a few translucent red glazes.
artist statement
This piece was originally meant to be part of the red group project by my atelier. However, the class and curatorial team have decided to omit references to Palestine and Israel for the sake of maintaining neutrality and unity within the class, and to avoid accusations of antisemitism.
As an artist, I believe art has always been political. This piece, which I title bounty hunt, is a critique against war profiteering, and specifically the German and American companies which are profiting immensely from the ongoing killing and displacement of the Palestinian people. The price that corporations pay for these financial investments includes 70,000 tons of bombs dropped on Gaza since October 7th, 2023, and an estimated approximation of 200,000 direct and indirect deaths of Palestinians. My painting critiques the fact that more than 54 corporations see these numbers as “simply business”. As a woman of Jewish descent whose ancestors were forced to flee Germany because of genocide, I find that now is the time to say never again—for anyone.