Black September

The first thing that came to my head once I had my first taste of Jasper Johns was the American Flag and his Targets. My mind immediately combined the two to ‘Target America’.
The two events I show in the piece are the WTC attacks on 9 September, and the 1972 Munich attacks, performed by an extremist group identified as Black September (hence the title).
The Munich attacks refer to the killings of the Israeli Olympic team in the 1972 Summer Olympics. The circles represent the Olympic rings (albeit in an abstract manner).
The positioning of the target is important.
With the Olympic rings it holds a part in showing the transition of actions and emotions that took place. I consider blue a happy colour, so the Olympics start with a contented feel. Then they transition into the Black September attacks, and transition to a target; hostility. The black circle represents the fear and hatred that ensued. The next circle is an empty target, with no Bulls-Eye. This symbolizes the botched rescue missions and negotiations, hostile movements by the government with no clear aim. The last red circle shows the bloodshed when the entire team was shot dead.
With the WTC towers, it brings to light the conspiracy theory that there were bombs planted at the bottom of the towers prior to its demolition.
The chessboard is used to display the intricate gameplay of politics and war. The uniform arrangement of the chessboard squares also appealed to me to include it. I admit that I was also attracted to including the uniformed lines of the chess pieces themselves, but decided that it would turn out to overcomplicate the piece. I used real chess pieces in an attempt to recreate Jasper John’s technique of 3d objects incorporated into his work. His skill was in confusing the viewer as to if they objects were 3d or painted on.
I do not think I have achieved that effect, as the pieces don’t look like they’ve been painted on, but I still believe that it adds a better effect to the overall piece than a simple 2d painting.