In 2016, residents of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the United States organized protests against the construction of a pipeline through the area, crossing the Missouri River. Focused on protecting the river’s water, the demonstration’s camp, which lasted six months and grew to 6,000 people, was heavily repressed with the use of tear gas, attack dogs and water cannons (including during low winter temperatures). In the painting, this scene is reconstructed with a Boschian setup of helicopters, hyenas, two-headed dogs, a Donald Trump figure harassing Justice and other elements that, between realism and fantasy, build up small allegories of a situation marked by the cruelty of repression and the persistence of the resisting demonstrators.
