The Politics of Despair
A Prison Planet
Billions of people are a business opportunity for lawyers and prison builders. A life in prison is worth dollars on the balance sheet.
Beast in Downing Street
There lies a monstrosity at the heart of politics. A beast which is clearly in sight and yet one our media cannot see.
The Cause of Our Own Destruction
Where there is money there are lies. Where there are lies there is always money. One is the currency of the other.
The Prisoner of Lies
In the landscape of money any view or perspective of the world is lost. All we can see is what we call wealth even though we have a poverty of purpose.
Binary Logic
We bomb, we die. Ahead lays barren extinction. We cannot kill our way out of our destiny.
The Triumph of Intellect
How proud are we of what we are and what we achieve? We are turning our lives to dust with our skill for killing.
Bull in a China Shop
The world power balance is changing. Such power shifts have never occurred without extreme violence. If we look around ourselves then we can see that violence everywhere.
The Princess and the Dragon
How morally idle are we when we bomb ourselves. Even our outrage is data mined by the advertising industry.
The Politics of Despair is a series of collage works which critique the leadership which governs us. In each image a new voice is collated from the use of a character from a classic painting juxtaposed with a contemporary image. In the cold oil of the characters we see a humanity threatened by the photo realism of our bankruptcy in politics. The pain and suffering is obvious to all except those who would set themselves beyond the lives of ordinary people. Their decisions are not about the well being of all but the safety and security of a few. When money is the god of the global worship then the Politics of Despair is all any political system can offer.
Takayama critiques this offer with imagery which makes plain the efficiency and morality of the world of power today. ‘Bull in a China Shop’ is a particularly grim view of the future as we witness the decades in which the super power of world politics is challenged. Whilst ‘The Princess and the Dragon’ provides a stark and damning view of a world in which destruction is around every corner. The artist’s use of collage to give voice to such concerns delivers her use of juxtaposition on the perfect artistic platform. In these works this technique is clearly exposed and we can see how Takayama constructs her critiques with reference to a history of art and a history of our times.