Map 

Curator: This unsettling image, titled "Map," is by Sue Coe. Coe often works with ink and mixed media, using drawing and collage techniques, to create works that challenge societal norms. What's your first reaction to it? Editor: Well, immediately, the feeling I get is chaotic and bleak. The composition feels disjointed, like fragments of a nightmare pieced together. The sketchy style amplifies the sense of unease, as if the whole thing might dissolve at any moment. What's the broader historical context she’s engaging with here? Curator: Coe is a committed social realist, and her work often confronts issues of power, exploitation, and social injustice. With "Map," her graphic narrative explores the underbelly of contemporary culture through a biting critique of capitalism and its various spectacles. Think of the 'corporate games' mentioned; she's pinpointing greed as a driving force. Editor: The "corporate games" blurb jumps out to me, too, because she has positioned it as the “greed triumphant” centerpiece of a carnivalesque wheel. I also see, further on the periphery, this promise of escape from "factory farm and dancing bears" to this "fundamental, non-denominational dead certain of God's love revival tent"... Are we talking about cultural or political disillusionment here? Curator: Absolutely. Coe's using the metaphor of a deranged amusement park to represent our political landscape and its attendant social ills, where everything from "War Carousel" to "Ship of Fools" promises empty thrills. The barbed-wire border really brings home a sense of confinement, hinting that no matter where you go within this system, you're still trapped. The work pushes for conversations around consumerism and exploitation in capitalist societies. It uses those shock tactics for impact, drawing from the aesthetics of cartoons and agitprop to dismantle accepted mythologies around capital and wealth. Editor: So, beyond the spectacle, it functions almost as a warning, or a call to acknowledge the system we're all implicated in? A "snack bar and trauma center," a place where pleasure and pain are inextricably linked... I see it as very effectively disturbing, but definitely not comfortable viewing. Curator: I agree. Ultimately, Coe's "Map" acts as a harsh indictment, forcing us to confront uncomfortable truths about our social and political realities, using biting satire to reveal structures of power at play in seemingly innocent facets of contemporary life. Editor: It makes you think twice about enjoying the ride, doesn't it?