Palmyra

This painting is based on news reports of ISIS or the Islamic State's pillaging of ancient treasures in Iraq and Syria. 

The Islamic State has said it regards artifacts as sacrilegious vestiges that deserve to be obliterated. In propaganda videos and photos, the group has detailed the wreckage of a treasured museum in Mosul as well as important archeological sites in Iraq in a systematic effort to destroy a people and their culture.

These images are taken from a book of wooden African statuary and are symbolic representatives of the destroyed antiquities. Since ISIS propaganda videos have also shown grisly beheadings and severing of extremities, I painted these statues with heads decapitated and limbs amputated. Blood is abstracted.