Let’s have a mind and raise flowers.

Derek Hess
Overcompensation
Pen, ink, acrylic
2006
            Derek Hess is a Cleveland based artist who was first noticed as a music poster artist who has now gained widespread interest for his religious and politically motivated art. He has recently added most recently to the political landscape most directly in his design of an Obama “Change” poster. In 2008, he provided the illustration and mixed media art for Please God Save Us which also featured political essays by Kent Smith an Education Board member in Euclid, Ohio. The inspirations Hess cites there are the “hard Christian Right, religious extremists, John McCain, and intolerance.” Hess’s work draws from political and religious iconography and at times co-opts directly Christian proselytizing publishing material. His art, populated by murderous angels, self crucifying figures, and apocalyptic urban landscapes are polarizing and confrontational lending themselves to debate and discussion that hopefully will exceed the brash bombastic nature of his art. Hess’ pieces often retain their sketch lines, their feeling of immediacy and incompleteness which lend them to the interpretation that they indeed are only to be approached as launching discussion and further debate-they are not the final word. As prophetic, they condemn, rile, abuse, and wait for the response. Repentance often requires time, and these pieces engage the interpreter/participant in such a way as to initial shock, but with repeated viewing and over time, allow for pushing back against the message.
            Hess’ Overcompensation can recall the image of Michaelangelo’s sculpture of David. One arm cocked at the shoulder, one arm lowered but tense as though beginning motion, the weight shifted on his feet. David, depending on the perspective is just victorious over his foe or just beginning to take up the fight. Which is it that Hess has in mind for his elephant headed monster? Whereas David has in hand his sling and a small stone, Hess has girded his warring giant with what he calls his “Crosstika” symbol, a synthesis of the swastika and the Christian cross and what appears to be a Bible. The Elephant head aside, there are a few discrepancies to note: Hess’ figure is much more muscular, and there is more motion implied as if in a swaggering forward. The monster’s genitals too have been decreased in their size leaving the interpreter to muse on their own understandings of Freud and Lacan.
            The crosstika and scripture as weapons signal the kind of destruction being depicted in the piece is that of ideology, rhetoric, the battle over minds, memes, thoughts, emotions, the battleground of the soulish space that society lives in. As to the weapon of the crosstika: both the swastika, a symbol of good luck shared between Hindu, Greek, and Indigenous American Nations among others, and the cross can be seen as symbols that have been greatly misused and bastardized over time. Together in the crosstika, Hess causes one to reflect on the crucifixion of our symbols themselves and their continual need for maintenance, their incompleteness, their inability to speak to our values and complex spiritual lives. Just as the cross in American culture is seen by some as an offense, so do many see it as something that needs to be defended, recaptured from those who would ‘misuse’ it. The same can be said of the Bible in the monsters other hand; as much as scripture is read, it acts as a symbol. The clutched Bible in a stalwart hand can be seen at political protests and its magical use as symbol has been ritualized in swearing-in ceremonies of our political officials. Hess acts as a prophet calling one to see not these symbols or artifacts as dangerous, but in their ambiguity-their defenselessness against their appropriation. An interpreter is brought to reflect in how they may have used religious or spiritual symbol or frameworks to harm another. As one who has participated in ministry, I can attest to how easy it can be to mislead and harm, albeit inadvertently, another.
            Of course, the Red Elephant head here is Hess’ much recreated demonic recasting of the Republican Party icon. Hess sees the Bush administration years and its neo-conservative agenda setters’ unholy alliance with conservative Christians as creating a poisonous atmosphere for the American culture. Yet the elephant head can be seen as a mask-only a cover for the murderous monster underneath that would seek to see others beneath it. This again can interpreted as another example of the fluidity of symbol: how much is the Republican Party itself only a symbol? How it may act as a divisive or unifying force in our society as an organization should not be confused with the individual Americans who belong to the Party. If the Red Elephant head is seen as a mask, who is hiding behind it? The prophetic voice calls once again to ask each interpreter how they might prop up Political Parties, or Politicians as caricatures, use affiliations or voting histories to deride or dismiss a fellow human being, or hide themselves from individual responsibility in society.
               The people trampled at the bottom of the piece are first and foremost those who suffer the crimes of emotional, spiritual, ideological demeaning. We are met with a prophetic call to repeat of how we overcompensate our perceived enemies with antagonistic polemics, slander, jargon, and bigoted thoughts that we give life to everyday in our interactions. Is the Monster shown here a Republican or ourselves? I believe that Hess’ title of Overcompensation may act as a clue to us. Is he overcompensating by creating a piece that could be said to show a Republicanized Christian Right marching through corpses? I would say yes. Only because I believe that any prophetic voice must first resonate within oneself before it could possibly be applied to anyone else. Has the last eight years of neo-conservative politics been oppressive to the poor, people of color, LGBT communities and families, our youth, the environment, and the innocents of Guantanamo and Iraq? Yes. However, I believe that America will not succeed in its hopes for a positive and reconciliatory change if the need for justice is not begun within myself first.
            So I approach Overcompensation as contrite myself. I reflect on how I have in the past stood by and allowed others to slander entire groups of people, both religious and political. I reflect on how my own stooping to the lowest common denominator in public discourse has only led to polarizing others and not to understanding and patient debate. The Monster here is not of any particular party or religion afterall. It is the force that lies within me to overpower, to dominate, to use and abuse the symbols around me to my own ends. I need to myself take off the masks that I have chosen and face individually my responsibilities. While the people trampled here I believe are victims of a thought life-those that one would like to see as having a value less than ourselves, it is important that my thought life has real world effects-for justice and peace or violence and hatred. It is for fear of creating more victims, that I see this work as firstly and foremost prophetic to me.        -Ryan McGivern