"Wonder Woman Meme"
116x90cm Acrylic on canvas 2015

I got inspired by the "meme culture" in the internet and chose to reinterpret the "batman slaps Robin meme" with other icons, Terrorism and sexism being some of the prominent problems in today's world, I choose to give it a spin of my own through art. I'm also very inspired by Lichtenstein pop art and this is also some type of tribute and reinterpretation of his work.

I have always been inspired by comic book art. Being a bit limited in my capacity to draw it properly I asked the help of my friend and very talented Italian comic artist Vincenzo Lomanto to make the drawing to my specific needs; that was to paint a Wonder Woman in the 50's retro style to make the recall to the original meme even more obvious and I give him thanks and credits for this part of the work in the creating of this piece.

This piece takes head on with very sensitive aspects of today's human conflicts. We're living in a moment of great distrust and fear of the difference. I praise and look to a diverse and multicultural world as something positive and I also see the extremism of certain types of behavior and beliefs I consider archaic and unjust as negative to the whole. Far from me the Idea to judge or stigmatize any religion or ideology in this piece. It is kind of obvious which symbols represent each of the characters depicted in the work, that said keep in mind my criticism is circular. The fact that Wonder Woman reacts with violence (given the fact she is a superhero with super powers) is also wrong, as wrong as the extreme and stupid claim made by the violent and extreme "minority".

Famous "Batman slaps Robin meme" from which I got inspired to create this piece.

Being conscious of the very itchy times we are living in, I didn't want to leave the minimum sign or way to misinterpret this piece as being phobic to any religion in particular. I added the Kalashnikov rifle to underline the concept the person making this claim is not a regular normal person but a terrorist (to simplify) that wants to impose his non universal extreme way of thinking to the whole. In this piece Wonder woman is a symbol that also has to be understood in many levels, from the intuitive "western" super power civilization to a symbol of woman in context with male abuse and or asserted superiority. People will read this piece in many levels, this makes it an excellent conversational piece, but to be shared with knowledgeable and open minded people better.

Related anf follow up piece to "Wonder Woman meme" I painted "Wonder Woman slaps Trump" the next year to continue and debute a series. Click HERE for more information.

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