The Stain of Vacant Angels - Original

Product Details

The Stain of Vacant Angels

60cm X 80CM

Mixed Media on wood Panel

This piece is from the exhibition "Lest We Forget"

The text written on the piece is transcribed below:

The Stain of Vacant Angels

A fifth (of the way) into a new century,

there were warnings.

We watched a pandemic rip through our entire civilization

and bring the world to a screeching halt.

We read the papers,

wished and waited.

We longed.

We tried to unite, with exceptional failure.

We counted our dead without properly mourning.

We put our friends and families in refrigerators.

We hid our consequences.

We blamed and pointed fingers.

We fought for all the wrong remedies.

Like children, we fought and threw temper tantrums.

Parts of us died – the good parts.

Time stopped.

This had never happened to us before,

and likely might not again.

We thought.

Parts of us were cut off, and have not grown back.

We buried the victims,

and carried around the resentment of our financial losses.

This went on for years.

We were unprepared for eventualities.

It wasn't cost effective.

Failures can be opportunities,

should you learn from them.

One day on the west coast of America,

the sun never came up.

We had actually stopped tomorrow from coming.

We stared into the red sky, slack jawed and awe struck.

Staring our death in the face.

In that darkness, the weight of consequence was crushing.

The sun eventually returned,

and the pandemic subsided.

We went back to jobs we hate.

We started our cars.

Began removing people from their homes,

and let children go hungry again.

Today, there are millions of birds flying over head

with a pathogen that's in our food.

In our milk,

in our carbon dense air and contaminated water.

And we lumber forward, talking of growth and scale.

With amnesia,

having learned nothing.