| Mapping criminal corporate-government connections is a dangerous occupation. Exposing the players and their front companies is even more hazardous. These are the subjects of Mark Lombardi’s art and the hidden global realities of money and power. His artwork, literally as well as figuratively, connects the dots of international high-level white-collar crime networks. Lombardi’s drawings are mandalas of conspiracy, flow charts of shady deals and shaky agents, and org charts of world-class con men, revealing the genealogy of wickedness in the highest places of corporate and government power. |
Bill Clinton, the Lippo Croup, and China Ocean Shipping Co. a.k.a. COSCO, Little Rock-Jakarta-Hong Kong, ca. 1990s (5th Version), 1999 Colored pencil and graphite on paper Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Scott
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"Mark
Lombardi: Global Networks" is a traveling exhibition of 25 drawings, some
as large as 4′ x 12,’ organized by New York-based Independent Curators
International (ICI) and curated by Robert Hobbs of Virginia Commonwealth
University. In graphic terms, the drawings document the major financial and
political frauds of the late 20th century. They are flow charts of illicit
money and power, solid and dotted lines and curves as well as broken arrows
denoting the flows of illicit financial operations and covert revenues.
One of the
drawings, entitled "George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens, ca
1979-90" (1999), shows the connections between James Bath, front man for
Saudi money, former CIA spook and business broker, and the Bush and bin Laden
families in shady deals in Texas and around the world. Other drawings document
the Savings and Loan (S&L) Frauds, IraqGate Fraud (illicit sales of nuclear
and biological weapons to Iraqi kingpin Saddam Hussein with a $5 billion US
Government guaranteed “agricultural loan” through the Banca Nazionale de
Lavoro), Iran Contra Fraud, and the Clinton/ Jackson Stephens Frauds.
Lombardi
was an artist and an archivist, not an investigative reporter. He simply used
available material from books and newspaper articles for the “content” of his
work. Viewing his work, mostly un-inked pencil drawings, requires the ability
to see the
graphics, read
the names of people and corporate fronts, and then integrate
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’> this content of networks into an
epiphany about How the Real World Works. Lombardi’s web-like drawings show the
decentralized nature of the networks of crime and flows of global capital. The
key is a multitude of front companies, which add layers of complexity to the
conspiracies themselves.
Mark
Lombardi (1951-2000) was diagnosed with bipolar disorder or manic depression
and supposedly died from suicide in 1999 after two successful solo shows when
his career was about to go to take off. Lombardi, whose business card
ironically read "Death Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy," was found
dead in his studio and officially declared a suicide case in the police report.
Perhaps, as the government whistleblower and author of "The Conspirators:
Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider" Al Martin said, "The guy put
together one chart too many."
In a video
of the artist shown at the exhibition, Andy Mann asked Lombardi in February
1997, “Do you fear for your life?” Lombardi replied, “This is a way I can map
the political and social terrain in which I live.” Lombardi also described his
work as “visualized fields of information started out as corporate diagrams.”
In the
end, Mark Lombardi’s contribution to culture is his relentless search for the
truth. He was a pioneer in the cartography of realpolitik
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>, mapping international networks of
crime that include government officials and shady so-called “business” men.
Lombardi’s legacy is his depiction of geo-political realities, the essence of
global criminal conspiracies. No theory, just conspiracy. |
