Batbamacare, Bane Capitalist – Street Artist Election Parody on Web by General Howe

October 16, 2012 Artists

Holy Healthcare, Batbama!

Conceptual Street Artist General Howe will be sticking a pointy eared mask onto Obama’s photo after the presidential debate tonight – as he writes his next report for the Super Election News website.

A screengrab from the art parody blog by conceptual street artist General Howe called “Super Election News 2012”

One part HuffPost Politics, one part The Onion, and one part Halloween super hero role-playing – The site is the onscreen version of parodies General Howe started in his street work a few years ago. By subverting the election “news” that’s continually blared from the polycephalic cluster of political blogs and trustworthy news websites, Howe equates the candidates staged personas as spun by PR machines with the simplified good and evil story that is told in the Batman sagas.

Obama as Batman, Romney as Bane, Gingrich as Penguin, Sheldon Adelson as the Joker… “Presidential elections and summer blockbuster movies have become the same thing,” explains General Howe, “There is an epic battle of good vs. evil and the fate of the world is up for grabs. If we pay a little extra for the larger soda, the experience will be that much better.”

General Howe. The Supers. Super Election News 2012 (photo © General Howe)

With regular postings on his online art/politics website, the General has been mulling over the implications of simplification of complex issues, the corrupting influence of blind money donations, the surreal spinning of real news, as well as parodying the more obvious manipulations he sees in his daily review of what has essentially has become a hyper-charged money-fueled media industry that commoditizes candidates for profit and ignores/deludes the citizenry.

What may frighten you more are the similarities between fact and fiction.

General Howe. The Supers. Super Election News 2012 (photo © General Howe)

General Howe’s new series of characters are called “The Supers” and he has made a print comic book for the 2012 election, as well as installed some parody election signage in the perfectly mowed autumn lawns of sterile suburbia, where the effect of seeing a pro-Bane or pro-Batman and Robin sign is startlingly normal appearing in all their patriotic colors and crisp graphics. Antecedents to this campaign can be found in General Howe’s reworking of actual advertising signage during the 2008 campaign where John McCain was 2Face, Hilary Clinton had the bloody clown lips of the Joker, and Obama was again depicted as Batman.

General Howe. An infographic that merges olde with new on The Super Election News 2012 (photo © General Howe)

While his art on the streets has always had a political element that is informed by American culture and history, General Howe has been having a blast with this new online art project, “This work has strong roots in street art but is completely digitally based. I’ve been thinking a lot about making accessible work and communicating a message to the masses and as much as street art does that and I think there is unexplored territory in how much of peoples lives exist in the digital world. It would be a great evolution to see digital content and websites subverted the same way our physical environment is being subverted by street art. I don’t have the skills or knowledge of a hacker so this is my attempt at transforming the digital experience.”

General Howe. The Supers. Super Election News 2012 (photo © General Howe)

From 2008 by Street Artist General Howe, these advertising panel interventions featured Obama as Batman and John McCain as 2Face. (photos © General Howe)

From the 2008 campaign by Street Artist General Howe, Hilary Clinton was merged with The Joker for this wheatpaste and this fine art panel displayed at the BSA “Street Crush” show. (photos © General Howe and © Jaime Rojo)

Updated for 2012, these new pieces from “The Supers” were on display at the Crest Hardware Art Show this June by General Howe. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more day-to-day update on The Super Election News from General Howe go to:

http://superelectionnews.wordpress.com/

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