| Description |
Joe Hill is so surrounded by myth that his portrayal is often that of a symbol of selflessness rather than of a selfless individual. His execution on circumstantial evidence for the murder of John G. Morrison, combined with his avowals of innocence, aided his creation as a labor martyr for the Industrial Workers of the World. Hill's innocence or guilt of the murder has not been conclusively proven, contributing to the pliability of his legend. The image of Joe Hill has been appropriated and manipulated for purposes from history to propaganda. In an attempt to go beyond the martyr to the individual, the manipulation of Joe Hill is explored In a series of prints. Joe Hill's image-making begins in a sequence of propaganda posters executed in the style of an early twentieth century socialist propagandist with an audience of the working class. The propagandizing of Joe Hill in the posters is based on that of the I.W.W., loosely following its characterization of Joe Hill from that of another imprisoned Wobbly, to a martyr in the fight against the wage system. The idealization of Joe Hill and my function as a propagandist is destroyed as the series moves into personal manipulation of Joe Hill, exploring his role in his idealization. In Joe Hill's letters two conflicting views appear through his theatrical declarations of self-sacrifice and straight-forward rejections of his martyrdom. The prints mirror the progression from the individual to the myth, as Joe Hill increasingly submerged his identity to conform to the I.W.W. 's conception of a martyr. Whether Joe Hill was a victim of a prejudiced judicial system or an opportunist seizing his chance for immortality, in the end he is an anonymous figure, anonymous through his own choosing as much as through the machinations of his image-makers. |
