Saturday, July 10, 2010

Anti-American Art: The Demons of Mordor?

Modern mural from the Philippines showing the "Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the New People's Army, chasing away the demons of colonialism." It's kind of socialist realism meets cartoon art meets the urban wall mural. Uncle Sam up in the corner is looking quite sinister and Sauron-like.

The Philippines was an actual U.S. colony between its seizure in the Spanish-American war in 1901 -- when U.S. forces defeated both the Spanish and Filipino independence forces -- and its capture by the Japanese in the WWII. The Maoist New People's Army has waged a low-level guerrilla insurgency since the 1960s.

(Photo snagged from Jack Stephens' blog The Mustard Seed / Baliksambayanan. Thanks! Click on the photo to see it larger.)

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