PROPAGANDA AND SATIRE

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I began this body of work in the years following September 11, 2001. During that period, I witnessed a sharp rise in nationalism and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, developments I found deeply disconcerting. The rapid normalization of surveillance, militarized language, and fear-based patriotism made it clear to me that these shifts were not isolated responses to a crisis, but part of a broader cultural movement. I became concerned that, step by step, these changes were slowly moving us toward fascism. This work emerged as a response to that realization, an attempt to make visible how authoritarian ideologies take hold not all at once, but through familiar symbols, everyday objects, and the quiet acceptance of persuasive imagery.

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In my work with postage-stamp–sized prints, I intentionally draw from the visual language of WWII-era German propaganda posters and stamps, not to glorify them, but to expose how powerful and insidious those aesthetics were. I am interested in the way something as small and ordinary as a stamp can carry enormous ideological weight. By recreating this visual language, the bold typography, heroic poses, and stark contrasts, I make viewers look twice. Pulling these elements into a contemporary art context forces an intimate confrontation with imagery that was once designed to persuade, manipulate, and normalize violence. My goal is to show how propaganda lives in the everyday, how easily the eye accepts it, and how visual language can be reclaimed to examine the mechanics of power rather than unconsciously absorb them.

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Some of these works are deliberately created to appear as if they could be legitimate United States fascist postage stamps. This is where the satire becomes most pointed. By mimicking the authority and legitimacy of official government imagery, the pieces are meant to shock the viewer and momentarily blur the line between historical reference and contemporary possibility. That moment of uncertainty is intentional. It exposes how close the aesthetics of fascism can feel when wrapped in familiar, bureaucratic forms.