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Seeing hoodie-wearing teens a few years ago with images of Ché Guevara emblazoned on the back gave me a brief feeling of hope, simply because I assumed they chose to identify his revolutionary spirit and fight for change with their own take on the world and rebellion against adult institutions and authority. But then after soon realising that most of them had never even heard of Ché let alone have any idea of what he stood for, made me see a lot of them as more ignorant than usual. Like the saying goes, ‘better to be thought a fool and remain silent than to open your mouth and have it confirmed’; and we all know how loud teenagers can be.
This stuck in my mind, and over time I thought to comment on this visually. I wanted to keep the classic image recognisable yet give it an urban twist, symbolising the appropriation of it by today’s youth. The red drips - painted with a colour called Diablo Rojo (Devil Red), represents the blood spilt over time, in the name of sacrifice for the sake of others and change (prophets – ancient and modern, and the many other peoples around the world that have fought, and continue fighting tyranny and oppression), as well as the blood spilt in this time, in the name of sacrifice for the sake of pride and foolishness.
If those that have gone before and given up their lives so that future generations could inherit a better world in which to thrive were here now, would they still make the same sacrifice? And what would their final parting message be to those that stand to take over a violent and unstable world? What would your message be…?
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