Juxtapoz friend and one of the leading voices in the progressive street and public art movement around the world, South Africa-born Faith XLVII has just released Empire, a bronze sculpture edition produced by Bronze Age Foundry in Cape Town. The bronze sculpture was made in an edition of 16, stands nearly 16" tall, created in 2020. Faith created a short poem about the work, which you can read below.

EMPIRE
A powerful animal subjugated by humankind.
Inescapably majestic and elegant, powerfully muscular in form, with an innate nobility.
This beast bears the weight of our projected nationalism and patriotism,
upholding statues of oppressive statesmen and war “heroes”.
Historically, these were the creatures men took to war,
to fight and die alongside them with unrelenting loyalty.
Yet dignified with it’s own sense of agency, independent from human quests.

Within this discrepancy between their physical power and their subservience,
they become archetypal symbols for notions of human power struggles,
the horror of war, nationalism and blind loyalty to leadership.