Artist Malaquias Montoya calls it "more grotesque than the most hideous crime," "a terrifying act of violence" and even "premeditated murder." As for the rest of society, we call it the death penalty.
Currently on display in the Friedl Building, Montoya's PreMeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment features 24 silkscreen images, paintings, prints, charcoals and posters of penal institutions. The people depicted in the works range from physicians conducting the executions to historical figures like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Most of the faces are shadowed or obscured, giving the images a dark and morose tone. Supplementing the works are quotes from Albert Camus and journalist Susan Blaustein.
The showcase is the premiere art exhibit in the brand-new Fredric Jameson Gallery, the first gallery sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences, said Jenny Snead Williams, executive director of the Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South.
Primarily sponsored by Latino/a studies and the Kenan Institute for Ethics, PreMeditated is introduced to campus after a year-long collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and more than 10 other sponsors.
"We wanted to bring awareness to the death penalty as well as encourage civic engagement," Williams said. "We need to know as citizens what the government is doing on our behalf."
Montoya earned national and international fame through his artwork on Chicano culture and history. The Chicano movement originated in the San Francisco Bay Area during the mid-1960s as a political protest for the underprivileged Mexicans in America.
"Art should always speak for someone," Montoya said. "It is personal and similar to propaganda in a way because it speaks for someone else."
PreMeditated depicts those who have been silenced through legalized killings. The project began in 2000 with a dramatic increase in executions in Texas. Montoya has always been morally opposed to capital punishment, he said, and the escalation prompted him to look into the deadly procedures.
"I researched the different forms of executions all designed to make the process a little bit cleaner, from hangings to electric chairs to gas chambers to lethal injections," Montoya explained. "But in many cases, they are just as violent-it's premeditated murder. Authorities set the date and hour and then inform the prisoner that on this day, 'You will die.'"
Montoya created PreMeditated through silk-screen painting, which has become a popular production method for T-shirt designs. After stretching fabric across a frame and exposing it to light, a colorful design is applied on the fabric over a stencil. The practice resurfaced in America during the Chicano movement in the '60s.
Junior Ana Galeano, an international student from Honduras working toward a certificate in Latino/a studies, said Montoya's artwork deals with a controversial yet relevant issue, adding that his style is sharp and arresting, almost to the point of being crude.
"It's different from the art usually seen at Duke in the sense that it's very striking and political," she said. "Even though everyone has their own opinion on the subject matter, it's something that will stay with you after you leave the gallery."
For Montoya, that is his goal for the project. He said he hopes viewers will come away from PreMeditated with a fresh perspective and asks them to consider the true satisfaction of capital punishment or the value of revenge.
"I want viewers to go away thinking, 'Does the final solution really make us feel good?'" Montoya said. "I simply want them to think about the death penalty because maybe there is a better way."
PreMeditated is on display in the Fredric Jameson Gallery in Friedl 115 through April 17 and from mid-May through mid-September.
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