Oilgraph on wooden panel // 48” x 36”
Created in live performance April 28, 2013 at Theory Labs

When brother turn against brother a society has reached a cultural nadir...

And so it was when Abimelek, the bastard son of Gideon, rose to claim power over Israel. Gideon had seventy sons. Abimelek was his bastard child to a concubine. He went to the town of Shechem saying,

"Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal reign over you, or that one reign over you?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and bone.”

The leaders of Shechem gave in and gave him money to hire his murderous thugs. And on a single day, he murdered all seventy of his brothers, on a single stone, in public, and became their ruler.

Weeks were spent making the costumes and props. Weapons were made of bones. They needed to look at horrifying as possible. The scene was staged in a long bloody afternoon at BIG ART LABS, in downtown Los Angeles.

In the piece, the assassins’ arms were doubled up to emphasize not jut the movement but the dark supernatural forces behind them.