What is the real meaning of Liberté Égalité Fraternité?

That’s a good question in the face of a new proposed law censoring French citizens free speech. According to the law, you would be criminalized for publishing any photo or video where a police officer or gendarme could be recognized if there is an intent to harm their “physical or psychological integrity”. Obviously this sounds like a vague restriction that could be widely interpreted and possibly abused.

Undoubtedly people see that individual freedoms are being steadily threatened by the state in many countries now, but France has explicitly fought for Liberté of the press. Since many people have a camera today – we are almost all the de facto “press” members who can hold civil servants and elected leaders accountable by self-publishing images and events for other citizens to see and discuss. It’s a right worth fighting for, if you ask the demonstrators in Paris right now.

The question as it pertains to the new print that Faith XLVII is selling right now is something slighty different, but still related – and still heroic on some level.

“The imagery of a rearing horse signifies a powerful animal which has been subjugated by humankind, and has finally broken free. Carrying with it the weight of nationalism and patriotism, memorials and statues of statesmen and war ‘heroes,'” she says.

“Historically, they were the creatures men took to war, to fight and die alongside them with unrelenting loyalty. Inescapably majestic and elegant in their powerful and muscular form, horses have an inherent sense of nobility,” says the street artist and fine artist in a statement accompanying the print release.

“Within this discrepancy between their physical power and their subservience, they become archetypal symbols for notions of human power struggles, war, nationalism and blind loyalty to leadership. By unleashing or freeing these dignified creatures through these images, we understand our own sense of agency, independent from political quests, ultimately expressing potentiality for our own humane power.”

LIBERTÉ ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ II
6 layer Stone Lithograph
Printed on Japanese Udagami Paper 70g
78 cm x 109 cm / 30.71 inches x 42.91 inches
Edition of 60

A percentage of all sales will be donated to The South African Cart Horse Protection Association, who have have been providing vital services and education to the cart horse owners since 1995, including a clinic, treatment stalls and paddocks, cart repair workshop, education and training providing services to over 260 working overworked or abused cart horses and their owners.

Click HERE to purchase the print

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