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Manderson, Desmond --- "The exorcist: law's crimes and art's super powers" [2020] ELECD 103; in McCutcheon, Jani; McGaughey, Fiona (eds), "Research Handbook on Art and Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020) 225

Book Title: Research Handbook on Art and Law

Editor(s): McCutcheon, Jani; McGaughey, Fiona

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 14

Section Title: The exorcist: law’s crimes and art’s super powers

Author(s): Manderson, Desmond

Number of pages: 14

Abstract/Description:

Rafael Cauduro’s mural The Seven Crimes of Justice, situated in the Supreme Court of Mexico, speaks to the old problem of the relationship between art, politics and the State. In Mexico City, the birthplace of modern muralism, Rafael Cauduro confronts its ambivalent legacy and offers up new solutions. And at the same time, at the very heart of the legal system, Cauduro presents a critique of law and justice almost unprecedented in its uncompromising determination to lay bare the brutality of contemporary legal phenomena. This chapter examines how Cauduro’s aesthetic choices address the history of modern muralism, and how his thematic choices address the history of modern law. This chapter addresses questions of time and memory, and demonstrates how the trope of the ghost has not merely aesthetic power but legal importance.