Washington, DC - December 16, 2013: If art is a reflection of life then Dani Finger's art not only reflects her life, but her life reflects her art, and both are a powerful condemnation of the unspoken values of our culture.
Her celebration of life's beauty with her kitschy style make serious subjects such as the domination and manipulation of food security by multinational corporations, unmanned death dealers from above, and the slow death of capitalist created poverty palatable for the non political and young alike.
Her vision, colorful and sometimes absurd images, mixed with a mastery of spacial dimension and an eye for detail create a unique and powerful challenge to cultural norms often taken for granted by the compact masses scurrying about just to maintain things in their life just as they are, without regard for the impact of the status quo on their progeny or the so labeled underclass in which it creates and maintains by its apathy.
But its not just the final product that is important to talk about here; because if not for the sacrifices that led to these inspired and inspiring pieces she could be overlooked as just another talented artist in a world full of competing talent.
Dani Finger could have joined the workforce like so many in her class, slaving away daily for the profit of others, but it was her introduction to the ills she speaks about through her art that drove her and her partner Journalist and Photographic Artist Cory Clark to cast off the chains of corporate slavery and live and fight for the ignored people of the world.
Her passion for the lives being crushed under the weight of the greed and graft of the super rich, led her to repudiate the material world, with the abandonment of the comforts of the sheltered life of middle classdom for the horrors and pains of homelessness. Choosing to live out her values and her revolution with her life, making Albert Camus statements on living your life as an act of resistance a reality for her and her partner, and an example for others.
Each one of her pieces in this exhibition were created in public spaces such as parks, Metro entrances and sidewalks, so that people outside of the normal art circles would have access not just to her but to her art and be inspired and provoked by it.
Even the choice of showing at The District Gallery of Decorative Arts in the heart of the underprivileged section of Northeast Washington DC, and even the duos choice of returning to the art scene in DC are to the end that those in poverty will be inspired and those who already have power will be forced to smash their apathy and take up the mantle of direct action.
Though her series is titled "What I Learned at Camp FEMA,' these two won't make to a reeducation camp, and even if they did it would be a waste of time for their keepers, because the notion of true freedom and equality embodied in the great revolutionists of history burns bright in these two and that's a passion that can never be snuffed out. Prior to Dani Fingers Decision with her partner to take to the streets and document the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable her talent and potential for greatness was already being seen when she was showing with artists of the highest caliber such as Isaiah Zagar, and Zoe Strauss, and being fawned over by the likes of Moe Brooker, all nationally and internationally known artists in their own right.
Also showing at the Henry George School of Social Science in Philadelphia just a month before leaving on their journey into the darkness and violence of poverty and homelessness.
The story she tells and the worlds she creates for her viewers have powerful messages for all areas of social concern, for the political and nonpolitical, poor or rich, oppressed and oppressor alike, there is something everyone can take away from her work, even if it's just beauty for the sake of beauty.
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