Our concept of Collaborative Art is an intentional refusal of individualism as the ideological core of capitalism and liberal humanism, valuing inter- subjectivity and collaborative processes as a necessary shift away from the illusion of authorial ‘mastery.’ The art for Re-Visions of Abolition began with a reworking of common tropes in abolitionist imagery. Chains, guard towers, barbed wire and walls are among the most recognizable. We took inspiration from three existing images. First, inspired by Banksy’s “Kids On Guns,” Setsu suggested we combine it with the tree motif from the original Visions of Abolition. Krishna then added the idea of a hill containing the silhouettes of prison paraphernalia.

Inspired by.

Tree from Vision of Abolition (2011) 

Banksy “Kids on Guns” 

The Tree of Wisdom is by installation artist Daniel Popper erected at Nelson Mandela’s birthplace in Mvezo, South Africa.

Dream it.

This Collaborative Art is a combined work of acrylic painting on paper and wood, photography, digital brushwork, texture patterns and experimentation with lighting effects. The artistic process began with Krishna’s drawing of a textured tree trunk. He then used acrylic paint to create multicolored tree branches and leaves that grew out of the monochrome and grayscale tree.

Paint it.

We introduced blood trails and multiple hues to the hill of destruction to set this work apart from Banksy’s hill of weapons, which is a black, red and white color-blocked painting. Setsu introduced the idea of a hand grasping out from inside the hill, beneath the wreckage to symbolize resistance to the systemic forces that bring needless suffering and destruction

Grow it.

This painting was then photographed and uploaded to a digital platform allowing the work to take on a collage structure. Atop this mound of corpses and destruction, our Tree of Vision still grows despite the hostile environment with its leaves bursting into a rainbow of color. The leaves then morph into birds of flight against the backdrop of a mystical sunrise. We used darker elements of purple, black, and grayish-blue-green to contrast with the brighter color scheme that gradually forms in the sky and surrounding areas. Krishna drew and painted multi-color birds that emerged from the leaves of the Tree of Vision