HOME SWEET HOME, 2007

HOME SWEET HOME, 2007

Ink brush, sprayed ink, white gouache.

104 X 78 cm 

Big Brother makes almost every critic become numb and silent by means of „doublethink“, causing a permanent mental state of outmost obedience and identification with the leading party. It gets embedded into the citizens´ psyche by means of constant manipulation, brainwash and terror. Oceania´s thus shook citizens trust the most contradictory statements and actions of its rulers without a trace of wondering. Without suspecting that the ones they consider their saviors are in fact their tormentors, that the countless contradictions of the „Big Brother“ could stem from lies, manipulation and state crime, they fall for everything the party does.

The entertainment industry confuses those clueless, once apathetic, sometimes hysteric sheeps with an excessive amount of meager diversion, violence and mindlessness, while the technocratic language of the party „Newspeak“ impoverishs a once rich language, mutilates its precision, eradicates its beauty and emotional connotation.This is a not insignificant part of the total package of all-encompassing brainwashing. In fact, the propaganda of „1984“ enables the state to let its citizens believe that one and one equals three, as soon and as long as it pleases. And so Oceania's subjects consider themselves as righteous, law abiding and exemplary when they recognize thought criminals everywhere foreign and domestic, spy on friends and family and finally betray them to the „thought police“. Devoutly following the obvious lies of the government, and then slavishly obeying the most insane orders, also appears to be a guarantee of survival. For the "Big Brother" rigorously takes action against dissenters.

Orwell might have been inspired in his book by differing political and social developments during his times. Indeed, it was not only totalitarian systems such as those of the National Socialists and Stalinists, but also the news department of the BBC, for which he himself had worked, that were the godfathers of the "Big Brother's" empire. 

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