Collage-Eli Schultz

Artist statement:

The theme of my collage is freedom of belief, and what happens when people have it and don’t. The first third on the left symbolizes a world without freedom of belief and is filled with images of oppression. It has three main images; a painting of suspected Protestants being tortured during the inquisition, a large crowd listening to a speech by the Ku Klux Klan, and a speech by Hitler. Images on top of the inquisition scene include a blown up version of a prisoner being tortured, handcuffs, and chains, each being items of oppression. A photograph on top of the KKK scene shows a Tibetan monk being dragged on the ground and arrested by Chinese police. A photo of Hitler’s saluting hand meeting with a young boy’s also saluting hand shows that people will blindly follow, even if what they are following is wrong, along the famous picture of a man preventing tanks from restricting a Chinese protest during the revolution. These images represent political, social, and religious oppression. All are black and white to make the viewer feel like the scenes are old (most are) and that forced belief should be a thing of the past.

The third section to the far right shows benefits of freedom of belief. A large collage of ocean and sky imagery represents freedom in general. A periodic table shaped like a whale and DaVinci’s flying machine with his head on it both symbolize great things that have come from a free environment. Many important scientific discoveries were made in situations that lack religious or political requirements, while periods like the dark ages, where people thought that whipping themselves would cure the plague, were controlled by intrusive forces like (at that time) the church. The United Nations building, which I placed on top of a small island, is one of the most definitive symbols of freedom and diplomacy; it’s meetings involve many places of the world negotiating what’s best for its citizens.

The middle section is based on my personal beliefs, Science, beauty, baseball, and speed. A background of 1987 baseball cards is meant as a bright color contrast to the adjacent black and white images of oppression. On the bottom, a baseball player with Sir Isaac Newton’s head is hitting a string of beautiful, 200MPH+ cars. Isaac Newton of course symbolizes my love of science, while the baseball player and cars do for baseball/strategy and speed, respectively. On top, the great Jewish pitcher, Sandy Koufax, is throwing a high-performance Ferrari at Hitler while holding an experiment of quantum levitation. These are included for the same reasons as the first.

The two quotes that separate the segments are “It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge”- Adolph Hitler, and “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom”-Albert Einstein. Hitler said the first quote, making it false to most people. It also serves as a good anti-thesis to what I’m saying with this collage. I believe the opposite; that facts are infinitely harder to disprove than faith, as you can use facts against faith because they are true and cannot be doubted, but because there are no facts to back up most faiths, they are easier disprove. I think the Einstein quote perfectly describes the idea I'm expressing here.