Desire and Piety Mark Bradford Is One

¶ … Desire and Piety

Mark Bradford is one of the leading figures in contemporary art and has even been touted by some as "the most compelling and captivating artists working today" (Wexner Center for the Arts 2011). He paints juxtapositions in his work that are very carefully measured in order to send specific messages to viewers of his artwork. In his piece "The Corner of Desire and Piety," Bradford shows his viewers the bad side of humanity, specifically regarding how certain so-called "services" for the people tend to prey on the vulnerable. His piece is a grid of 72 identical posters that are fashioned after one that he found in post-Katrina Lower Ninth Ward New Orleans that said "Propane Deliveries to FEMA Trailers" and included a merchant's phone number (New City Art 2011). In order to show how services like FEMA prey on people who are vulnerable, he removed the number of the merchant and put FEMA's phone number, which is a way in which he shows how FEMA was not there for the people of New Orleans who needed them.

"The Corner of Desire and Piety" is named after a New Orleans neighborhood of underwhelming shotgun houses very near the Mississippi River. It is the size of a wall and rather than touched by paint, the piece of work looks more like it has been scarred by it. Saccoccia (2011) states that each poster "is like a tile in a mosaic that echoes the grid-like trailer parks that sprang up in the wake up Katrina." His paintings evoke the devastation of the Katrina disaster and upon closer look, one gets the idea of the type of ruin that the city of New Orleans was left in after the hurricane. The painting is not just emotionally stirring in that we sense the devastation, but rather, it is emotionally stirring in that we sense the political and social injustices that took place in New Orleans during and after Katrina.

Bradford's work is abstract, however, there is a certain amount of realism in his piece because of the politics that are imbued into "The Corner of Desire and Piety." His piece evokes a certain roughness and prey-like quality in that it depicts the threats of our age especially within a gritty urban environment. He so easily captures the grit of New Orleans post-Katrina as well as the danger that isn't merely coming from the natural environment but that of the government as well. While some might believe that as an artist Bradford is simply taking urban images and making them into his own versions of art, there is more to it than just that. Bradford does capture images from the street as he did with "The Corner of Desire and Piety," but he also imbues his own social and political opinions in both a clever and effective way.