A note on my "Ustašice" series (and a rough draft artist statement)
The Ustaše (that's the plural form of 'ustaša'), for those of you who do not know, was a Croatian-fascist-Nazi militia that dominated Croatia, which is considered in American history as a "minor axis nation" (meaning America was not in direct conflict with them) during World War II. They were tasked with the extermination of the undesirables of the Balkans, which consisted of their cultural, ethnic, and political enemies. Their rule was thankfully ended by the Yugoslav Partisan resistance which brought into power the communist president Josip Broz Tito.
Understandably, much of the history of the Ustaše has been swept under the rug by Croatians. However, a surprising amount of Ustaša-sympathizers have arisen in post-Yugoslav politics since the 1990's.
As an ethnic Croat, a lover of Balkan culture, and an Eastern European political junkie, this history is quite relevant to my life and politics
Croatia is not alone in this surge of Eastern European ultra-nationalism. Putin's government has been the prime example of this trend to the west. With his hyper-masculine image (all of those famous shirtless pictures were not released by accident), far-right politics, and seemingly excused human rights violations, many westerners, even conservatives, have condemned Putin.
However, most of Russia supports him and his policies.
I've heard friends of mine say things to the effect of "you would think Eastern European governments would have learned their lesson by now", and to an extent I agree. But being a political activist myself, I feel the issue is deeper in complexities than that, and revolves around the same magical word: dogma.
A major problem that all political intellectuals, particularly leftists, tend to have is that they are made up of doctorate degree after doctorate degree. These are people who have spent a huge part of their lives thinking, reading, and writing about extremely complex ideas that most people, at least according to my personal hero Plato, simply do not understand and don't care to try to understand. At the same time, socio-political change does not occur with a few individuals. You need a large group in order to do that, many of whom are not intellectual. So it becomes a matter of simplifying complex ideas into short slogans for people to remember and become passionate about, despite the fact that most people do not entirely understand what it is that slogan stands for. This puts any kind of political activism into a paradox, of which one must be highly cautious.
When speaking about fascist society, dogma is especially important- arguably more so than any other political ideology. From the words of Rogers and Hammerstein, "You've got to be carefully taught/ Of people whose eyes are oddly made/ And people whose skin is a different shade/ You've got to be carefully taught". I firmly believe that fascism does not come naturally to the human soul- but belief in dogma does.
As a way to further explore this concept, I have chosen to create a total of six paintings of women in the Ustaša militia. Unlike their male counterparts, the ladies of the Ustaše in their photographs are not posed militaristically with their chests puffed out and a solemn expression, but like girl scouts. They look as though they are simply posing for a nice picture, unaware of what the party they support is actually doing. Of course, this is consistent with the way gender roles in fascist society are made up. However, I believe it speaks to the larger issue of blind patriotism and ignorance in politics.
Most of all, they are very relevant to the current political happenings of Eastern Europe, and should be a memo to all those of what the effects of extremist dogma can lead to.
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