WVRHXLV by 119ONYX

This project is the manifestation of art in the hands of the people rather than celebrities and canonically lauded figures such as Picasso, achieved by removing the notion that beauty can only be found in luxury. Such luxury is quite apparently and objectively beautiful, which is why it has been relegated to the upper crust. This leads the proletariat to falsely conflate luxury, beauty, and wealth, creating the self-fulfilling prophecy that they themselves are incapable of experiencing it. The reclamation of art is the first of many steps to ending this conflation, and the first (and most necessary for collectivization) mean of production to be claimed from the ultra rich despite its comparative intangibility. Warhol was a young boy from Pittsburgh who brought art to the streets in its first wave whilst popularizing the normalization of LGBTQIA+ people and sexual liberation for a short time. However, this work was largely exploitative and limited to white people/governed by the patriarchy, as evidenced by the circles who most praise it and the price point at which it sells. I take his former surname of Warhola as a parallel version of him who was devoid of these flaws and took steps toward collectivization, stylizing it in KLVN hieroglyphs in remembrance the numerous black groups before me who have attempted to do the same before falling to some all too familiar form of exploitation. I have no loyalty toward Warhol, only to Pittsburgh and the people at large. May liberation flow like wine in the gardens of the oppressed. I present to you, WVRHXLV.

luna