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Item: De paddestoelen der gramschap
1973
Photography, 83 x 68 cm.
Materials: photo emulsion, canvas
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp.
The denunciation of the sometimes violent actions of the state and police apparatus is given a striking expression in De paddestoelen der gramschap. The title of this work refers to John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and serves here as a starting point to depict an overpowering, white-helmeted police force as the embodiment of hateful repression. The poem consists of a montage of several photographs, resulting in the dissemination, over the entire surface of the picture, of countless white helmets, like a parasitical fungus. The violent, aggressive character of the display of power shown here is powerfully rendered through the heavy clubs of the so-called ‘officers of the law’.
