Bless the Beasts and the Children 2020, #6

Bless the Beasts and the Children 2020 (2019). 
Acrylic on canvas. 150x 100 cm. 8 portraits.

The title references the 1971 film, Bless the Beasts and the Children. A group of outsider youth stand up to a pyrrhic battle to save the slaughter of buffalos at a rifle shooting range in the American midwest. Against insurmountable odds and certain defeat, through the experience defending what they believe in, they come to know themselves. The end is already written and they experience fatalities among their group of youth, and they can never truly change the pre-ordained outcome. Their defiant last stand for their future transitions these children into young adults who believe that their voice must be heard above all else.

The song of the same title by The Carpenters begins "Bless the beasts and the children, for in this world they have no voice, they have no choice."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhR36gV6vW4

I saw this film as a young boy in school. It affected me then just as the seemingly hopeless situation in Hong Kong affects its young today. I see this film and the protests as being strongly connected.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068286/

Included in my second solo exhibition, We No Longer See the Stars,  with de Sarthe Gallery looking at the protest movements that have occurred globally in 2019, from Chile to Hong Kong

DETAILS

2019

We No Longer See the Stars
de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong
January 18 - 7 March, 2020
Bless the Beasts and the Children HK, #6 (2019)
Acrylic on Canvas
100 x 150 x 3 cm


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