2016     1″

A detournment of Albrecht Durer’s Ercules inspired by the work of Fredy Perlman. Text from the poster version reads:

“Some say Durer was a communalist like many of the peasant rebels of his day, others an authoritarian of the worst stripe. While his work can support either of these seemingly contradictory stances, his profession of respected artist reconciles both nicely. It’s more likely Durer was opinionless on such matters, or at least his opinions often went to the highest bidder—which is worse? A renaming would seem in order.

VI               VI               VI

The lion is christ/god: the son of death, condemner of life, consumer of worlds. The ship is commerce and the emerging merchant class. The manor stands for king and secular, militarized power, but also the city, that nascent open-air prison that future generations will think of as natural, as home. And knights, they are the epitome of good christians: as powerful as tanks, fair-skinned, clean and domestic even in their foreign wars, chaste even in their rapacious quest for plunder and land, as obidient and reliable as the broken horses they ride or the mechanical clocks of dominican monks. Yet, in this moment, the knights are impotent against our magical forces, our chaotic strength, our rebellious power. King, money, and god are small, far-off and unable to do anything other than watch their soldier be pressed into the earth—that great equalizer—and in this moment, if only for a moment, this beautiful moment! anarchy reigns.”

¢25-$2