Eat the Colonizer
2024
porcelain, mason stain, glaze, birthday candles, thermal receipt paper, paper plate
15 x 10 x 15 inches
“I am a product of the Vietnam War. The more I dig into my family’s history, the deeper I get into how it began, the U.S involvement and the overall colonization of the Vietnamese which dates back to the Han Dynasty (111 BCE).
I couldn’t help but see some parallels of what is happening in Gaza to what happened during the Vietnam War which is what called me to create work about this.
Media has found ways to silence voices in order to portray other narratives. “Eat the Colonizer,” is a blue and white porcelain pot made to look like a cake referencing the trending phenomenon where people make hyper realistic cakes of other objects. In this case, I am making a pot look like a cake revealing a receipt of military expenses the U.S has provided Israel (what has been publicized so far.)
Like click bait, this pot is not what it seems. This is to critique social media’s content curation that limits and censors political content- a feature that some platforms pushed during the height of the genocide in
Gaza. The absurd amount of weapons that costs hundres of BILLIONS of dollars is possible with American tax dollars. I am once again ashamed of being a citizen in this country and have lost hope in our systems of government. Power is in the hands of the people, please keep donating, pushing Palestinian voices, don’t allow their lights to dim and CEASE FIRE.”
Receipt Transcription:
U.S Military Aid and Weapons
Ticket ID: 22565326
Customer: Israel
Date: 10 / 2023 - 05 / 2024
U.S Military Aid and Weapons
Ticket ID: 22565326
Customer: Israel
Date: 10 / 2023 - 05 / 2024
| Item | Quantity | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| M795 155-millimeter artillery shells | 52,229 | |
| M4 propelling charges | 30,000 | |
| M107 155mm artillery ammunition | 4,792 | |
| M830A1 120-mm tank rounds | 13,981 | |
| Lines 1-4 | Total | $106,100,000 |
| Iron Dome batteries | 2x | $200,000,000 |
| Spice Bomb | $320,000,000 | |
| Tank ammunition | $700,000,000 | |
| Tactical vehicles | $500,000,000 | |
| Mortar rounds | $60,000,000 | |
| Boeing F-15 fighter aircraft | 50x | $18,000,000,000 |
| 2,000 pound bombs | 1,800x | $5,580,000 |
| 500 pound bombs | 1,700x | $2,550,000 |
| Total | $19,894,230,000 |
President Biden will aid military weapons to Israel under an Obama-era $38 billion aid agreement lasting until 2026.
Almost half of U.S discretionary spending is spent on the military ($752.6 billion in collected data from 2021).