Maureen Burdock

Blood for Oil
oil on jute
36 x 48 in.

Civilians terrorized by war. The body under duress. The human spirit under siege. These are the recurring themes in the paintings, installations, art books, sound pieces that I create. These themes are a reflection of current events: countless attacks on small countries by large countries, attacks on the poor by the rich, on female by male, on little by big. My response to the oppressive forces is to examine, deconstruct, redesign, and make public their efforts.

Surreal becomes earthy, political melds with medical. I make pictures that communicate human experience in fearsome, feral, conflicted and complex forms. “Blood for Oil” was my response to the Bush administration’s attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. Piles of human remains create a great wall that snakes its way toward a murky horizon. This bone wall is piled atop oil pipelines, forming a dollar sign. Too easy to forget that the “objectivity” of cleansing regimes is essentially the religious subjectivity of a powerful and privileged few. With my work, I invite viewers to remember.

© Maureen Burdock