BRIEF: A meme about monsters, culture as propaganda, 500+ years of appropriation of the wealth of nations through genocide, slavery, and colonialism.

BACKGROUND:

On a small island, called Guanahani by the Indigenous Taíno People (in present day Bahamas), Christopher Columbus accidentally made landfall on the 12th of October 1492.

Conceived & realized as a single animation during October 2020, DraCColumbus is inspired by the gothic horror novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and the disturbingly persistent hero worship of Christopher Columbus in the form of U.S. monuments, urban & institutional nomenclature. Using four different lights I explore the archetypal vampire as it relates to cultural propaganda of European colonialism broadly and the fetishization of its legacy of entrenched power structures; including but not limited to the control of water, land, natural resources, human beings, language, monopoly on violence, infrastructure, and currency.

INQUIRY:

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, The Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria too. Carried by the wind across the open sea, Bringing death, destruction, and disease. 500+ years of genocide — it’s true. I see a vampire’s legacy. What about you?