Art

About the artist
Human state has unquestionably been Joel-Peter Wilkin power of photography. For more than 20 years he has practiced his concentration in theology and how it collides with the corporal world in which we live. Finding splendor inside the bizarre, Witkin follows this mainstream yet complicated subject among human beings often thrown away or rejected by the community  vision of human beings in forms of anomalous bodily capacities, possessiveness and any existing parable.

His attraction towards other peoples physical structures has remained to be an inspiration for his works that challenge our wisdom, normal behaviors and politeness, while continuously probing the knowledge passed down to us through Christ. His steady orientation towards the arts works of Picasso. Bosch, Velasquez, etc. are evidence to his requirement to generate a new narration of the past for himself (Storck, 2002).

Through his photographs, Witkin reinterprets his unique thought in a last proceeding of admiration. Joel-Peter Witkins created world is both scary and exciting at the same time as he seeks to get away from our conception of sexual and bodily attractiveness. Through his descriptions, we increase a superior perceptive about human distinction and forbearance.

What distinguishes Joel-Peter Witkin from his generation is an agitation and wish that escorts him to places that other artists dread to go the gloomy side where each twinkle of brightness is genuine.
His setting is not anything small of the maximum vagueness thats engaged humanity ever since its very early stages, the final query of existence and bereavement queries that by their very natural world are eventually unanswerable, apart from in those individual, short, and empirical instances when art overpasses the opening between the sanity and the intelligence. No one inhabits this position better than Witkin does.

The Raft of George W. Bush  Historical Significance
The Raft of Medusa was painted by Theodore Gericault in 1819 in support of the prevailing political environment at that time. That was a truth, and this is not. What Witkin did is that he picked up this painting and went on to creating truth out of this fantasy. He called this creation Raft of George W. Bush  (Barnes, 1990).

Medusa was a French war boat which sank and the captain along with most of his army viciously seized the seafaring lifeboats. They left all the passengers on board along with the sailors to survive the sinking raft on their own. This was a great example of discrimination among classes.
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The Raft of George W. Bush
Similarly, the passengers on the Raft of George W. Bush included his partys men and his government officials. These can be regarded as the sufferers of their own underlying principles, their conventional superiority, their greed for authority and power in the society, and their one-sided military motives. Witkin tries to show these privileged and authoritative men as sovereigns devoid of clothing. Also called the Ship of Fools, The Raft of George W. Bush was created in 2006, with dimensions being 16  20 and 38  24 inches. The entire work was in silver print (The Raft of George W. Bush, 2009).

Interpretation of Media and Critics
This was termed as the modern Ship of Fools which has as its graphic foundation, namely from the Medusa by Gericault (The Raft of George W. Bush, 2009). The characters depicted in this photograph are George W. Bush sitting and wandering in his own majestic ideas which are in the shape of tiny light bulbs. George W. Bush is also unskilled, who attained his president ship out of goodwill and treachery, instead of statesmanship. As official and leader, he is a man of no respect, a leader who utilized admired discrimination, sham declarations and promises in turn to put on and seize authority for himself. Both the commander of Medusa and George W. Bush are killers.

Moving on to the photograph, we see one of Bush hand lies on the breast of Condoleezza Rice. She is considered to be the authoritative woman who is just a good speaker and dressed in excellent clothes all the time. Near him, stands Barbara Bush, his mother who is gazing at the light which is actually the parable of liberalism and democracy. The vice-president and his wife are shown as an operatic star and diva straining to proselytize their doctrines in song. Barbara Bush is tied to a mast. She holds a sun-reflector under her chin-representing her joy in basking in the sunlight of power yet always looking like The Quaker Oats Man (Storck, 2002).

Beneath her sits Donald Rumsfeld who is Defense Secretary trampled by the Iraqi catastrophe. Colin Powell wears the headdress of glory in the military class and the dollar image strives for, after deceitfully addressing the world at the UN. Powell is shown to be conveying to Bush that they have to salvage.

Dick Cheney and his wife utter blissful ecstasy in their apparent freedom. Dick Cheney is the kind of person who would do whatever it takes to achieve success. His cowardice is prominently shown with him wearing a gown and a bra evocative of the gutless men on the Titanic who disguised in womens clothing to protect themselves.

Other Characteristics
Other prominent and visible elements include the president with a crown made of gold paper like the one at McDonalds gold paper crown. His very own radicalism is responsible for his state of mind which is a child of his own deceit, agony, pain and death it has sourced. He is leading the incompetent officials in his government. He is holding the nude body of Condoleezza Rice who is his right hand and a brainless advisor. Secretary of Defense Rummy lies face down nearby, holding his glasses, wrapped in a flag of the nation  (The Raft of George W. Bush, 2009).

Other theocratic instances that we see are a man standing under the mast of the ship with the young man underneath him depicting spiritual comfort. Next to him is an annoyed angel, who is shown wearing just a bra and holding a holds a big bone which is a depiction of cannibalism as similar to capitalism existing in U.S. and hinders the social progress of the nation. All other men are illustrations of less educated men as an outcome of a misled nation.

Conclusion
The Raft of George W. Bush (2008) is easy to comprehend, intelligent and contentious, things that will pledge its position in the past. It is not intended to alter any rules and strategy, but it might form an edifying pointer chiefly in The United States of America, of a rotary position in the minds of many individuals regarding the foreign policy of America. Art and politics are enemies and while studying this photography, I realized that some artist, are still shrewd sufficiently to put onward political views, that run opposing to accepted developments.

What Witkin certainly is doing is proving that Art and Photography are competent enough to creating a debate in that case even jab individuals principles and especially when it comes to this painting. He is not just strolling his focus on politics or government or democracy.