Despite all good intents, since the start of the Industrial Revolution, we’ve chosen to create more weapons of human destruction than tools for human betterment.
Our aggressive, unquenchable thirst for energy and paranoid need for world power has cost us more than we think.
Rather than wages increasing, they’re decreasing.
Rather than capital accumulating, it’s hoarded by 1% of the population.
Rather than expansion of manufacturing, jobs are outsourced to other nations.
Despite the rise of smart phones, the Internet, Facebook and Google…
Despite being hyper-connected in a 24/7/365 information orgy…
Despite all our “energy-star” and “green compliant” appliances…
The whole ball of wax is still powered by the belching smokestacks and dirty industry of the Industrial Revolution.
And those who inherited the industries of the 19th century (coal, oil and gas) still underpin our economy and direct our country’s every move in their never-ending drive for more.
As the largest exporter of conventional weapons in the world and participants in nearly every military action on the planet in defense of this “way of life”, we’re now reaping what we’ve sown. Those kings of industry will not stop.
Regardless of the wars…
Regardless of the environmental annihilation…
Regardless of the millions of refugees left without homes or countries…
The kings of industry will never stop.
Welcome to Industrial Devolution
In this series, the Great Colonizer makes a grand tour of war-torn occupied countries. She ignores the destruction like a wayward tourist, mocks the destruction like a belligerent child, tries to ease the destruction with calm overtures of useless words and attempts to threaten the world into “peaceful” submission with atomic mayhem…
…only to become liberty scorched into the ghost of democracy.
· The Colonizer’s costumes represent the Industrial Revolution; each one was created by the artist (who is also the model) from second-hand factory-made clothes in industrial-age materials such as nylon and polyester held together with a singular safety pin, which represents the hidden fragility of the age. The settings are real war zones across the globe.
· She’s bald to represent the sickness this age has brought humanity.
· She wears a gasmask to represent the sickness this age has brought the planet.
