For the Wild
Back in 2002, after reading Edward Abbey’s cult classic, ‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’ first published in 1975, I became aware of Earth First, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. Shortly, after Abbey’s publication, many environmental activists felt disillusioned by the political processes of mainstream environmental groups. Abbey’s fictional characters shaped what would give rise to a contemporary generation of Henry David Thoreau inspired activists. Their slogan was, “No compromise in defense of Mother Earth”. This generation of eco-warriors ratcheted up new forms of civil disobedience, “Monkey Wrenching”. Their direct actions consisted of sensational demonstrations, tree-sitting, road blockades and property destruction.
The billboard is an homage to Abbey’s characters, Doc. Sarvis and Bonnie Abbzug who tool around the South West in a Lincoln Continental torching billboards.
‘Dr. Sarvis with his bald mottled dome and savage visage, grim and noble as Sibelius, was out night-riding on a routine neighborhood beautification project, burning billboards along the highway-U.S.66, later to be devoured by the superstate’s interstate autobahn. His procedure was simple, surgically deft. With a five-gallon can of gasoline he sloshed about the legs and support members of the selected target, then applied a match. Everyone should have a hobby.’
Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang
Above:
Homage to The Monkey Wrench Gang,
2012
Commissioned site-specific billboard in collaboration with LA⟩⟨ART & Los Angeles Public Domain on the occasion of the exhibition, For the Wild
For the Wild, 2012
Hand bound artist’s book
24”H x 16”W x 14”D
Artist’s Landscapes
When I began writing to incarcerated environmental and animal rights activists in 2006, I asked them: “Where are the places you journey to inside your mind’s eye, the sacred places that you remember, the places from your life on the outside that keep you sane?” I offered to be their eyes, “I’ll go there to make a picture for you”.
Back in 2002, after reading Edward Abbey’s, ‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’ first published in 1975, I became aware of Earth First, Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation. Abbey’s sentiment rang true for me and so did the ecotage actions by the radical environmental movement. During this time, I discovered that the Federal Bureau of Investigations targeted the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberal Front as the number terrorist threat in the USA.
Prior to the FBI’s announcement, the government had no credible evidence to seek indictments for unresolved environmentally motivated crimes, mainly arsons that happened across the American West from 1996-2001. During these actions, no person was ever physically harmed because every precaution was taken to protect the lives of others, a signature of ELF and ALF. The activists responsible for the actions eluded federal agents for years, but after 9/11 the FBI’s budget was abundant with resources and the Joint Terrorism Task Force’s power was emboldened by the United States Patriot Act.
‘Operation Backfire’, one of the largest investigations of environmental and animal rights activists in American history, began on December 7, 2005. A single informant entered into a secret plea agreement with the FBI and cracked opened the case - eighteen people were indicted and dozens of suspected activist were subpoenaed to testify before grand juries in Eugene, Oregon. Grand juries have the power to subpoena witnesses into testifying without a lawyer present in order to gather evidence against a suspect. One activist was detained for six months for refusing to testify.
The defendants were charged with conspiracy, arson and use of destructive devices. By filling destructive device and conspiracy charges and employing the Domestic Terrorism Enhancement Act, the federal government was able to threaten the indicted environmentalists with multiple life sentences. Under pressure from prosecutors, the activists accepted plea bargains in exchange for leniency.
Of the eighteen defendants who were indicted, nine accepted the prosecution’s plea agreements and co-operated, four negotiated non co-operation plea deals, four became fugitives, one was arrested in 2011 following his expulsion from China. The one remaining, Bill Rogers an environmental and social justice activist was arrested and took his life while in custody prior to his arraignment.
In his suicide note, Rogers wrote:
“Certain human cultures have been waging war against the earth for millennia. I chose to fight on the side of the bears, mountain lions, skunks, bats, saguaros, cliff rose and all things wild. I am just the most recent casualty in that war. But tonight I made a jail break - I am returning home, to the earth, to the place my origins.”
Bill, 12/21/05 (the Winter Solstice)
Peter Young, Painted Desert, SD 2008 Archival pigment print 43 x 53 1/2 in. Edition of 6
Peter Young, Devil’s Tower, WY, 2007 Archival pigment print 43 x 56
Jeffrey Luers, ‘Happy’, Fall Creek, OR, 2007 Archival pigment print 43 x 53
Daniel McGowan, Spirit Falls, OR, 2008 Archival pigment print 43 x 54
Rodney Coronado, Sunset, Sabino Canyon, AZ, 2009 Archival pigment print 43 x 56
Jonathan Paul, Umpqua River, OR, 2008 Archival pigment print 43 x 56
Jonathan Paul, Twin Lakes, OR, 2008 Archival pigment print 43 x 53
Marie Mason, Sleepy Bear Dunes, MI, 2009 Archival pigment print 43 x 56
Daniel McGowan, Rockaway Beach, NY, 2008 Archival pigment print 43 x 53
Peter Young, Painted Desert, SD, 2008 Archival pigment print 43 x 53 1/2 in. Edition of 6
The Government of the United States of America v. Rodney Adam Coronado
2011
Porcelain Incendiary Device, Incense Sticks & Romney Coulteri
Edition of 3
17" H x 7" W x 7" D
The Government of the United States of America v. Rodney Adam Coronado
On August 1 st 2003, Rodney Coronado was invited to be a guest lecturer at The Center, a LGBT community center in Hill Crest, San Diego. The event was open to the public and sponsored by a vegan advocacy group, Compassion for Farm Animals. He is environmental and animal rights activist who began working on anti-whaling campaigns in 1986 as a member of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He continued his advocacy for animal rights by organizing direct actions against the fur trade and animal research industry and as a pokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front and an editor for the Earth First Journal.
In 1995 he was convicted for a non-violent act of property destruction that he had done in 1992 against a mink research facility at Michigan State University. He served five years in prison. After Coronado’s release he continued his activism as a spokesperson and organizer for Earth First, giving lectures about his life’s work and social, animal and environmental justice. Coronado was living under intense scrutiny by the government for years and they were monitoring his speeches before and after August 1 st , 2003.
During the question and answer part of his San Diego lecture an audience member asked Coronado how he made the incendiary device that he had used at Michigan State University. He began with ‘I don’t recommend it because it is a felon’, yet he picked up a one-gallon plastic jug off of the snack table and gave a perfunctory reply. His intentions or his actual words were not an incitement for radical direct action. He did not pose an imminent threat. In attendance were at least 6 undercover officers from the San Diego police and sheriffs department as part of a joint terrorism task force.
In May 2005, the Deputy Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division for the FBI announced that the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) as one of the FBI’s highest domestic terrorism priorities, drawing a hard line between eco-terrorism and civil disobedience. At this point the San Diego speech reached the federal level and Coronado was arrested on February 2006 for a speech he gave two and half years previously regarding an action he had done over 13 years ago. Federal prosecutors would push for the Terrorism Enhancement Act, a new federal terrorism legislation that would allow the judge, not the jury, to add on an additional 20 years to any sentence. In Coronado’s case, he was looking at serving a minimum of 18 years as a domestic terrorist.
United Sates vs. Rodney Coronado, (The statute, 18 USC 842(p)(2)(A), states in its’ entirety: “It shall be unlawful for any person to teach or demonstrate the making or use of an explosive device, or a weapon of mass destruction, or to distribute by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction, with the intent that the teaching, demonstration, or information be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of violence.”
The defense argued that Coronado’s lecture was not a call to action but protected free speech. On September 18, 2007 the jury is deadlocked 8-4 for acquittal and the judge declared a mistrial. US prosecutors offered him a plea agreement and one year in prison in exchange for not being indicted and going to trial again on the same charge for another speech he delivered at the American University. The federal conviction rate is over 90% and going to trial would be great risk. Coronado accepted the plea bargain and signed what he considered as his “peace treaty with government” and served one year in prison with three years probation.
His probation conditions were unusually harsh. He was restricted from political speech, writing, or associating with environmental activists or organizations. And his computers were monitored. On August 3 rd 2009 he was charged with probation violation for accepting a friend request on Facebook from Mike Roselle an environmental activist. He served 4 months in a federal prison.
The photograph I have taken is a re-creation of the incendiary devise Coronado described to his audience in the San Diego speech. Finding the information to make it is easy you could go on line or buy a book on Amazon. I attended the trial and learned how to construct this basic crude device from the US prosecutors during their arguments in the courtroom. Whether you agree or disagree with Rodney Coronado’s actions isn’t the issue, in a free society our civil liberties must be protected and free speech a fundamental right.
Defense’s closing arguments by Tony Serra:
“Remembering the words of Voltaire, ‘I disagree with what you say but will fight to the death to protect your right to say it’. This is a terrifically important case. The two most beautiful words in the criminal court are ‘not guilty’. In a system where everyone is guilty, that is the beginning of totalitarianism. In the American way, we don’t punish ideology, we punish crime.”
(S)PACINGS, MUSIZ Foundation Sofia, Bulgaria
For the Wild LA⟩⟨ART Los Angeles, CA March 10, 2012 - April 14, 2012
For the Wild LA⟩⟨ART Los Angeles, CA March 10, 2012 - April 14, 2012
For the Wild LA⟩⟨ART Los Angeles, CA March 10, 2012 - April 14, 2012
For the Wild Two-Person Exhibition with Marius Mason at the Suburban Chicago, Illinois September 23 - October 21st, 2012
For the Wild Two-Person Exhibition with Marius Mason at the Suburban Chicago, Illinois September 23 - October 21st, 2012
For the Wild Two-Person Exhibition with Marius Mason at the Suburban Chicago, Illinois September 23 - October 21st, 2012
For the Wild Two-Person Exhibition with Marius Mason at the Suburban Chicago, Illinois September 23 - October 21st, 2012
Drawing by Marius Mason Invitation on the occasion of a two-person exhibition of Marius Mason & Kelly Sena at the Suburban. Exhibition invitational by Michelle Grabner & Brad Killiam, co-curated by Kelly Sena.