Live TV 2002 graphite on marble, 24 x 48 inches. Private collection.
“What is preserved is reduced to the event-instant, all progress converges on an inescapable problem which is that of perceptions and images.”
– Paul Valéry
On October 7, 2001, the US began spectacular bombing campaigns as part of remote military operations in Afghanistan, which then-US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (R) illustrated in a hastily prepared press conference. During his address, the bureaucrat pointed out with particular emphasis—so that the audience could identify them—the fragments of human bodies flying through the air, which blended into the mushroom-shaped smoke trail left by the explosion that dominated the illustration. This quasi-Machiavellian delight is meticulously detailed in graphite on marble, but, as a premonition or reminder—like karma or a kind of boomerang—interpreted in my drawing, but in a Western setting. Landmarks of Western religions, such as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris or the Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe chapel in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, stand out against the bucolic horizon. Legendary ruins of the birthplaces of public life and civic virtue, such as the Roman Forum—the epitome of Western “civilization”—are also prominently featured. Completing the panorama is a profile of “Americana,” represented by the imposing city of Chicago. As if one day we might see—live, or through our Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses—parts of more familiar corpses falling onto the pavement riddled with craters from vengeful bombings.
-Glexis Novoa 2026