"A Betrayal Story" by Faile

This piece made up torn paste-ups is part up the "Lost in Glimmering Shadows" Gallery done in 2006 by the street artist collaboration name Faile. This piece is part of a gallery that has the main theme of loss of culture of the American southwest and the combination of Native American figures and pulp fiction images that showed the contradiction and betrayal of tradition in America ("Faile"). 

            Stylistically, this piece shows a kachina figure ,which was a Native American figure used in cosmology and religious practices, mixed with pulp fiction ads that read "a betrayal story". The contrast between the traditional and the new shows betrayal of old culture and the replacing of the traditions with the media. This is shown by the cartoon woman holding on to the kachina dressed in a suit. The aspect of the kachina dressed in a suit shows the traditional customs being masked with new and the woman personifies the media clinging on and dragging the old customs out.

            Thematically, this shows the betrayal of the people of their old customs and the fact that they are masking them with new things thru the persuasion of the media. This piece was one of the many that Faile used to show their southwest roots but also to show the hyper commercialized society that we are living in today.