Caliph’s and Emperors

Greek born French raised Romain Gavras created two of the most striking pieces that I have come across lately. Of course there was the M.I.A. ‘Bad Girls’ that takes the snippets of Saudi Arabian motorway sandal skating (that have been floating around on youtube for years) and jacks it up to an orgy of high octane neo feminist Punk gasoline-culture imagery.

The second one, and the one that I hadn’t seen plastered all over the internet (granted I don’t live in the US so maybe that factors into it) is Gavras’ piece for Jay Z & Kanye West’s ‘No church in the wild’ This is a love poem to revolution and protest, detailing oppression with a romanticist eye, indeed many of the figures are turned by use of hyper slow motion into mythical Neo Greko Roman hero’s, a motif that is reflected in the repeated exposure of proud american empire architecture and statue shots. And of course the Phalanx of Riot police looking very much like a Roman Legionnaires in Testudo (or tortoise) formation.