The Plague (2009)

The Plague (2009) refers to the dual crisis of a destructive economy and a collapsing environment. It is set in the anonymous space of an international airport. Grouped in the front are various corporate types representing the contemporary follies of financial capital. Leading to the back of the image on one side are characters representing the major historic financial crisis (bubbles), starting with the Medici’s in 1500 and progressing through the major downturns of the 1720′s, the 1870′s, the Great Depression of the 1930′s to the start of the current crisis in the 1980′s. Behind the corporate figures are historic economists and environmentalists: from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman and Charles Darwin to Rachel Carson. On the other side of the image are the people who suffer the consequences and resist the ongoing economic and environmental devastation. A whirlwind of frogs blows through the airport referencing the Biblical plague of frogs and the fact that they are an environmental ‘indicator’ species.