Killing Us S̶o̶f̶t̶l̶y̶, 2019

One panel of triptych about the Chlordecone tragedy affecting the French West Indies based on the Japanese pictorial maxim of the three wise monkeys “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.

It symbolises how the French Government pressurised by a minority of influent large planters behaved towards the French Caribbean population over more than 30 years. Except in this case, ignoring or underestimating a mass contamination by pesticide lead to heavy consequences affecting us today and centuries to come.

• The pesticide officially declared toxic in 1972 and banned in the US in 1976 following an environmental crisis in Hopewell (Virginia), continued to be legal under the French government for use on the islands until 1993.
  
  
• A 2013 study found among adults in Martinique and Guadeloupe, that 95% had chlordecone in their blood while they rank number one in the world for rates of prostate cancer.
  
  
• Chlordecone is a persistent and long lasting toxin remaining in the soil for up to 600 years with a range of harmful effects on humans including cancer, infertility and premature births.

With the use of golden blood, it is suggested that while our people are bleeding and dying, all “they” see is gold. The real poison being greed, profit by any means necessary without concerns about the collateral damage on your own turf.