Supply Chain Portraits -The Paintings
Cafe Corazon
Cafe Corazon, 2020, oil and acrylic on canvas and paper, ink on papiers collees. 198 cm x 274 cm (78 inches x 108 inches)
Cafe Corazon, 2020, oil on canvas, detail of life-size central figures
Samuel Cumes Pop. (Guatemala) Caravan to America , acrylic on paper, 2019, detail 12 x 16
Mario Gonzales Chavajay. (Guatemala) Children Picking Coffee Beans, 2019, acrylic on canvas, detail 8 x 10
Family Trees
Family Trees. 2011. Oil and acrylic on canvas, white pencil on black Kozo paper, ink on papiers collees. 198 cm x 274 cm ( 78 inches x 108 inches )
In Family Trees Penan tribal leader Along Sega and his granddaughter survey the destruction of their forest home in the jungles of Borneo from the stump of a fallen hardwood tree.
Cobalt Blue
Cobalt Blue . 2012. Oil and acrylic on canvas and paper, white ink on black Kozo paper, papiers collees. 198 cm x 274 cm ( 78 inches x 108 inches )
in Cobalt Blue a miner in the Democratic Republic of the Congo emerges from a rocky hole where he digs the “conflict minerals” from which smartphone electronics and artist’s oil paints are manufactured.
Pipeline
Pipeline. 2005. oil and acrylic on canvas and paper, ink on papiers collees. 198 cm x 274 cm ( 78 inches x 108 inches )
in Pipeline a young mother in Nigeria’s oil rich Delta gleans spilled gasoline from a rusty, ruptured pipeline with a baby asleep on her back - just moments before the pipeline explodes in flames.
All Connected (Indra’s Net)
All Connected (Indra’s Net) 2022, 78 x 108 inches. Oil, acrylic, ink on canvas and Hosho papiers collees.
The piece explores the endless web of connections made possible by a single cell phone produced at a factory in China- geographical, informational, and spiritual: a supply chain of consciousness that simultaneously unites and divides all of us in the world.
Indra's Net
Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net that stretches out infinitely in all directions. There is a single glittering jewel in each knot or "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, twinkling brilliantly like stars in the night sky, a wonderful sight to behold. Upon the polished, mirrored, surface of each one of these jewels are reflected all the other jewels in the net. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an endless reflecting process occurring in which the jewels are all connected.
Internet
The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.
The Internet has enabled new forms of social interaction, activities, and social associations. Social networking services like Facebook, search engines such as Google, and public forums like Twitter and YouTube have given isolated individuals previously unimagined ability to communicate with others- for better or for worse. Information and disinformation, freedom and censorship, truth and lies, love and hate, can all be found on the internet.
Suicide Net
The "Foxconn Suicides" were a series of assembly line worker suicides linked to low pay and de-humanizing working conditions at the "Foxconn City" industrial park in Shenzhen, China. Suicide notes left by those who jumped told of immense job stress, long workdays and harsh managers who humiliated workers for mistakes. In 2010, fourteen Foxconn workers committed suicide with another four making attempts. In total, twenty-three workers took their own lives between 2007 and 2013. Media attention on employment practices at Foxconn-one of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturers-led to investigations by several of its customers, including Apple and Hewlett-Packard. Apple promised to improve working conditions. Foxconn management responded by installing suicide nets around the factory roof so that unhappy workers could not kill themselves.
Net Worth
For individuals, net worth or wealth refers to an individual's net economic position: the value of the individual's assets minus liabilities. Examples of assets that an individual would factor into their net worth include retirement accounts, investments, homes, and vehicles. Those who control information technologies have the greatest net worth: (2021) Jeff Bezos-$200 billion; Elon Musk -$168 billion; Bill Gates-$128 billion; Mark Zuckerberg- $127 billion; Larry Page-$107 billion; Sergey Brin-$104 billion; Tim Cook-$1.3 billion; etc. The average assembly line worker in an electronics factory has zero net worth.