Maria Lobensteijn

The People/Monsters series is an analysis of destructive behaviour on micro (I'm not that innocent) macro (funeral in Beslan) and meso level ( this canvas).

In this painting I depict Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple at the moment of their demise in september 1978 in the jungle of Guyana.
The title of this painting is 'drinking' the 'Kool-aid' because a lot of people, like the children, but also adults, didn't drink the poison that killed them voluntarily. Also, it wasn't Kool-Aid they laced with cyanide because at that point, funds were evaporated so they had the cheaper 'Flavor-aid'. Of course this painting isn't about soft-drinks but about fascism in a petrie dish. I consider this story to be interesting and important because of all the lessons that we can extract from it. Especially the way words were used to enchant, intimidate, an later: kill. But also lessons can be learned about poverty, religion and what can happen when people feel left out of society. 
The light in the upper right corner at the end of the pathway symbolizing the planks they walked on in Jonestown, the redemption promised by Jim, but especially: the railroad that was used as navigation by the people who fled through the jungle to their freedom. Where the pavillion used to be and the bodies were laid out, yellow flowers are growing now.
An anonimous letter was found at the Guyana compound after the killings, the request (see letter right bottom of my painting) : tell the story and learn from it, so I'm trying to contribute my own small piece to that.