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Jeff Johnson's poster is provocative. It's upsetting. It's even, some might say, gruesome.
After all, it catalogues in raw numbers the human toll from the ongoing war in Iraq. It notes that, as of July 14/2004 01:15:07 AM, 1,014 soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition had been killed in combat. More strikingly, it then goes on to deconstruct the carnage in exhaustive physical detail: 3,042 pounds of brain matter, 380,422 teeth, 983 tons of flesh and bone, 131,180 fingers.
It's a strikingly simple and effective piece of propaganda. It's also, according to the Star Tribune, in "poor taste." At least that's why the newspaper claims it refused to run the poster as an advertisement for an upcoming show at the Frank Stone Gallery in northeast Minneapolis. In a letter to owner Frank Stone, the newspaper stated that the advertisement did not meet its "Standards of Good Taste."
- Paul Demko, "380,422 Teeth And One Chickenshit Sales Dep't," citypages.com august 18/2004
posted August 19, 2004 in art, politics, print. 2002