Burnt Out Europe

Phase 1: Observation

Upon examining the piece, as a viewer, the head of Jesus Christ have caught my
attention. Then was attached to a crow’s body flying with a Nazi symbol stamped to its wings.
On a mirror view, the crow holds a figure on its left hand. The sky is covered in green color
portraying an awful aura, gloomy and creepy. The infrastructure in the background looks like a
big place for people with high ranks. Meanwhile the whole space that was being surrounded by
the white house is filled with few gray people and numerous red people with horns messing with
each other. A beheaded unidentified animal with horns is also present on the field. On the right-
side building, an unidentified specie is observed to be waving from the second floor of the
building. The artworks are comprised of five skulls placed on different areas of the piece.
Meanwhile, on the lower left side corner, a naked white and frightened woman is present with
fire on her body. The two skulls are facing the naked woman meanwhile one skull is front-
facing, and the other two skulls, using the mirror observation, were facing the right side in
contrary with the naked woman.

Phase 2: Analysis

The piece of Manuel Ocampo depicts a gloomy theme due to the use of dark colors with
the sky having a green vignette color. The style was gore due to the chaos that can be visibly
observed on the center of the piece. The blasphemous use of Jesus Christ’s head triggers the
audience. The swastika or the ancient religious icon related to Hinduism and Buddhism is
highlighted using light color which contrasts with what the artist used from the whole art piece.
The perspective of the piece was emphasized through the position of the faded white buildings
surrounding the area using slanted and diagonal lines. The field is intended to be in the color of
orange representing sand or earth. The texture of the crow was also served by using semi-
curved lines for the feathers and the skin of the naked woman poses smoothness due to the color
used by the author and minimal line strokes on its body. The red people with horns poses a rough
texture due to the observed horns and tails with sharp edges. Basing on the artwork, it is crafted
with a scale not less than of a miniature art and not greater than of the life-sized art.

Phase 3: Interpretation

Based on an interview conducted by Scarlet Cheng from the Los Angeles Times to the
artists, Manuel Ocampo, on year 2001, the art piece “Burnt-out Europe” was created in the year
1992. They claim that it reveals apocalyptic vision of evil times. The hawk’s body at the center
of two large swastikas and floating over a courtyard of horned demons. The paintings were
packed with skulls, crosses, devils, and hooded priests. The Ku Klux Klan were American
supremacist terrorist group that targets to kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, Africans,
leftist etc. They wore an all-white cone-shaped hood which is somehow connected to the art
piece.

The art piece was intended to trigger people who were associated with everything that
Manuel have put in this piece. The naked woman burning is the country of Europe. The Germans
occupied the Europe in the year 1939 to 1945 and the iconic symbol was the logo used by the
Nazis while deliberately fighting and killing large number of people in the land of Europe and
American Christians known as the Holocaust which gave rise to World War II. The Nazi’s
systematically killed six million Jews. Hitler and Stalin each killed millions of Europeans in
pursuit of their political dreams. Stalin’s reasoning for mass murder has been analyzed and
reported. His growing Communist revolution in Russia was surrounded by aggressive capitalist
forces. Stalin embraced the new theory of socialism, which requires fast industrialization to
produce weapons for the defense of the workers state in the Soviet Union. That required an
agricultural base to produce food for the urban working class. If the farmers could not produce
enough food for both themselves and the urban working class, the farmers had to be sacrificed
like confiscation of crops for the cities, and massive famine and death of millions of farmers,
also, it includes execution of all who opposed, resisted, or even questioned collectivization of
Soviet agriculture for the sake of pride.

Even though this artwork poses a lot of meanings from the past, it is still disrespectful to
use an image which is highly respected by other group of people. No wonder why in this
generation, people still have an issue and have this thick line that separates each other because of
the lack of understanding and unpleasant conceptualization of opinions and ideas. It hurt me so
bad and even had a nightmare just by looking at this piece. We are responsible for everything
we show and tell others. That is why it is said that before you speak, you should think of it
seventy times seven whether if it will be beneficial to anyone who will see it. I will personally
share my encounter, I am Catholic, and my close friend is a Muslim, we are different due to
religion, but we get along and share virtues and life-enlightening experiences by the learnings
that we acquire from different sources. Our viewpoint always meets even though we ‘re on
different tracks, why? Because the language of love cannot be change by any other translation of
the world.

Going back to the art piece where the author justifies using the image to be a sign of
protest or a spiritual expression. If you have been blessed with wit and talent, there are numerous
ways to demonstrate what you have in mind by using alternatives and by contemplating
prevention of chaos between people. If your talent will be used to insult the Creator, or even if he
does not believe as a nihilist, he should appreciate respecting people who will view this art. His
freedom of expression stops the moment he has stepped on to someone’s liberty. I personally do
not know Mr. Ocampo. I do not know his struggles more importantly the things that he has been
through in their Catholic School. I may not be in the proper position to tell these things; I am just
a student meanwhile he has been travelling and have been invited on different parts of the world
because of his artworks.

But this should not be the reason to disrespect. Using a sacred image for a protest will
never change a past that you imply. It should not bring any trauma of the past specifically those
affected by the Holocaust. If talent is based in this kind of art, I would rather be called
incompetent and be thrown out by these kind of people into the depths by not conforming to their
norms. In this generation, I have witnessed many blasphemous statements just for the sake of
laughter. It does not yield any good fruit, why do you enjoy laughing hard now and forfeit your
soul later. Even if they say things to me questioning my faith, I have nothing to lose. If God is
God and ever true then it is good for those who followed, but in contrary, we still have nothing to
lose, but you, who do not believe, if there is no God and you believe in your own understanding
and so be it but if God do really exist you have lost all your eternity.