In creating my sculptures or artwork, I am constantly lookingfor the essence of the material that I am using, its latent energy, andexpanding virtual vocabulary as they filter through my sculptures, allowing meto reflect my experience. Several events in thelast five years suggested that we had surrendered human consciousness to theglobal lie and cover-up perpetrated by politicians. In this new normal ofdivide and rule, the race is outshining one another. Accepting that the rulesof the law have gone comatose is strange and difficult for me. I've lived myadult life knowing that laws govern every nation on the planet and that nomadslike me must continue to navigate these laws.The body of work on this show Carte Blanche started inthe last three years and thematically focuses on banditry, state-sponsoredexecution and perpetual denial of crimes against humanity in most worldsocieties. The titles of these works draw attention to events that call theNigerian experiment into question, on the one hand, and press freedomworldwide, on the other. Many atrocities and crimes have gone unpunished. Thethreat to urbane dispositions is now widespread, as evidenced by powerstructures in government and the private sector - every class, household,school, organization, and business. Civility has faded in our collectiveconsciousness over time.One of the events that I find it hard to ignore was the gruesomemurder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi's embassy in Turkey. "Democracy Dies in Darkness" is the tagline of theWashington Post, one of the online news outlets that I frequent daily. Thistagline resonates with me each time I read the news on how some event happensand the damage management that follows. Meanwhile, the line between good andevil was being blurred every day at the podium in the White House briefing roomaround the world. It has never been so openly abused as in the US White Housefrom 2016 to 2021; every other White House briefing follows their lead andaccepts it as the new normal. On October 2, 2018, the news of Jamal Khashoggi'sgruesome murder in Istanbul, Kartal, Turkey, became a must-study for mysculpture inquest on the impunity that pervades human society today. All eyes andears are on the newsroom briefing the United States of America's White House. Iexpected sanctions and condemnation, but I was and continue to be disappointed.Many investigations into unsolved crimes continue until some closure isreached; one can only hope that his killers are apprehended. His assassins madesure he did not celebrate his 60th birthday by kidnapping him ten days beforehis next birthday. Khashoggi was the global poster boy for investigativejournalism, and he paid the ultimate price with his life.The sculpture titled 'New Normal - The Divide Between Good andEvil' in my ongoing exhibition Carte Blanche is a welded assemblage of steelrods bent to mimic the human body's blood vessels and oil pipelines. Each bentrod welded to the adjacent rod to form a web of rods, with the rod offeringtwo-point to the next and the next doing the same. Humans, regardless of raceor gender, are capable of feeling empathy for one another. The quest for truthis to free the oppressed's soul, which is why atrocities are condemned aroundthe world. The entire steel rod web is segmented into five concave shapes,representing the five continents. A stainless-steel writing pen with a redstain nib connects these continents, evoking the bleeding of truth in the personificationof Jamal Khashoggi and many other unaccounted-for missing journalists aroundthe world. The bleeding pen has five saw blades at various points on its body,as if the killers intended to ensure that the ink and barrel lack structuralsupport for writing. This pen is placed on a human silhouette, which is similarto cave dwellers' ritual of killing the animal in cave wall drawing beforegoing out to hunt, which modern-day prosecutors will call premeditative. Theceremony is held to appease the powers that be, such as Presidents, Princes,and bosses. Regardless of how it is installed, the piece is meant to be ameditative object for the ritual of reflection. The work can be hung as asymbol on a wall or placed on the floor to represent the falling journalists. Whenthey came for Jamal Khashoggi, only his fiancée Hatice Cengiz stood by whilethe rest of the world looked on. I completed the work in 2019, and it measures320 x 320 cm and is made of welded mild steel rods, mesh, stainless steel and mirror.