For the February Sculpture of the Month, I would like to express my care for our world by exploring the themes in a sculpture I created and completed during Donald Trump’s first presidency. Doing so will also allow me to honor International Day for the Prevention of Violent Extremism, which the United Nations observes on February 12th each year.
Prescient Cat at On the Verge of Cabal
2018
Back in 2018, as I explored a name for this piece, I remembered the 2017 photograph shown below of President Trump accompanied by his wife Melania, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Ridya, Saudi Arabia. The three authoritarian leaders have placed their hands upon an illuminated globe of the world that dramatically under-lights their faces. The orb is at the center of a room filled with computers primarily focused on tracking extremist ideologues in the muslim world who want to overthrow the region’s authoritarian governments.
This sculpture came back to mind vividly this month as we began to enter the second Trump presidency. All three of these leaders have continued to focus on suppressing any “extreme” views that might challenge their authoritarian rule.
Extremism is often connected to hatred, violence, and acts of terrorism. Interestingly, its methods and rhetoric can be wielded by individuals, groups, or by the state itself.
In fact, the first English use of the term “terrorism” occurred during the Reign of Terror in France, when the Jacobins in power employed mass executions by guillotine to compel obedience to the state and intimidate revolutionary regime enemies. Since the French Revolution, we’ve continued to see state terrorism employed by governments that brutally torture, kill, imprison, or “disappear” their opponents.
Later, in the mid-19th century, terrorism became associated more with non-governmental groups such as anarchists, nationalists, or anti-monarchists. Near the end of the 19th century, anarchist groups or extremist individuals committed assassinations of a Russian Tsar and a U.S. President. In the 20th century, Mohandas Gandhi, John & Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. & at least one Israeli Prime Minister, among other state leaders, were assassinated, while anti-abortion, anti-government, & eco-terrorists destroyed buildings and equipment and killed people associated with the causes they opposed.
In naming my sculpture after the event photographed above, I refer to the three characters around the orb as a “cabal.” A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design to promote their private views or interests, often by intrigue, without the knowledge of those who are outside their group.
Although the event celebrated a united opposition to extremist ideologies, state powers of repression usually kill far more people than groups or individuals. The event, therefore, served to further de-emphasis the extremist use of state powers to assure dictatorial ends. So, in my sculpture, the cabal refers to authoritarian leaders – whether elected or not – who cooperate to suppress the views of all who disagree with them as they enact their extremist programs of governance.
In the end, this sculpture serves as a warning to remember that extremism can take root in any actor or group of actors. Those in power are not exempt, and we must be prescient, like the cat, to any misdirection or extremist collusion happening off the public stage.
