Ideal Violence is a series of works on paper, drawing parallels between art historical martyrdoms, abductions, and state-sanctioned murders with contemporary acts of violence. These are made from sanguine and haematite, naturally occurring chalks named for their resemblance to dried blood. Sourced directly from Florence, Italy, these are the same drawing materials used by Renaissance and Baroque Old Masters. Each work is displayed in a hand-made 23K gold frame, evoking the aestheticizing, and thus normalizing, effect of museum display practices. For the contemporary scenes of violence, the victims of which are all persons of color, their gilded frames propose veneration within a canon from which they are typically excluded.
