This project focuses on juxtaposing optimistic and nostalgic feelings of the past with images of loss, fear, and fights. Each panel focuses on a different decade from the 1940s through the end of the 2010s. Each panel hosts a variety of bright colors to bring up happy feelings, but when it is looked at closer, it becomes obvious that the message is not necessarily a happy one. For example, the panel for the 1950s has a woman sitting on top of a stove. She appears very happy because she’s holding her arms up, but she is placed on a stove to symbolize the gender roles women were heavily subjected to during this era. The panel also focuses on the fear surrounding the Red Scare. Red and yellow bloody handprints are placed in the background along a burning American flag to symbolize the fear of communism that was prominent in this decade. The other panels were influenced by historical events like World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the Stonewall Riots, the Women’s Movement, Watergate, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the AIDS epidemic, Columbine, 9/11, the #BlackLivesMatter movement, among many others. The work features a collection of eight panels and is sandwiched together by a cover page and a closing page that each feature one part of the quote, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Each cover page is a simple black color with the quote appearing in white text to add one element of simplicity to the overall work, as well as emphasize the point of the entire work. The intended audience for this work is politically minded people who are still contributing to history. It is important for young people to learn from history in order to prevent it from repeating, and this piece emphasizes the pain and suffering that has happened in the past so as to prevent complacency in the future.
Lindsey Cardell 