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Russell Young: A Picture Paints A Thousand Words
Greetings Addictees!
Renowned for using powerful images appropriated from history and popular culture, British-American pop artist Russell Young, loves to glamourise “a very aggressive and violent image”.
Like pop artists past and present, Russell remakes these images which attest to the appetites and bewitching excesses of fame.
This featured artwork, “Riot” is based on Martin Luther King Jr’s speech “The Other America” (1967).
Extract: “But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.”
