- "Allegedly diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic
depression), Lombardi supposedly died as a suicide (or was suicided) in
2000 - after two successful solo shows and just as his career was about
to go to the next level... According to his friends, Lombardi told them
that he was being followed - just before his death."
-
- 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 -
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 organization charts of world-class
con men, revealing the genealogy of wickedness in the highest places of
corporate and government power.
-
- "Mark Lombardi: Global Networks" is a traveling
exhibition of 25 drawings, some as large as four feet by 12 feet, 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.
-
- Deconstructing Criminal Connections
-
- One of the drawings called "George W. Bush, Harken
Energy and Jackson Stephens, ca 1979-90" (1999) shows the connections
of James Bath, a former CIA spook and business broker, front man for Saudi
money who connected the Bush Family and bin Laden Family (of the Osama
bin Laden/ 9-11 legend) 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
phony "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
(from the public record) for the information "content" of his
work.
-
- Viewing his art (mostly un-inked pencil drawings) requires
the ability to see the graphics, read the names of people and corporate
fronts, and then integrate this content of networks into an epiphany about
How the Real World Works.
-
- Historically, of course, the Harken Stock Fraud made
George W. Bush his first serious chunk of money. It should be also noted
that Bath, a former cokehead pal of George Jr., was also connected with
the notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) Fraud.
-
- 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.
-
- Allegedly diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depression),
Lombardi supposedly died as a suicide (or was suicided) in 2000 - after
two successful solo shows and just as his career was about to go to the
next level.
-
- It should also be noted that Jim Hatfield, author of
"Fortunate Son," (Soft Skull Press), a biography of George W.
Bush, which alleged that George Bush Jr. was convicted in Texas on cocaine
charges, until his record disappeared from the court system, was also found
dead by suicide in an Arkansas motel.
-
- Adding a Real World Context to Art
-
- Artist Mark Lombardi (1951-2000), whose business card
ironically read "Death Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy," was
found dead in his studio, officially declared a suicide in the police report.
Or as government whistleblower Al Martin, author of "The Conspirators:
Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider," says, "The guy put together
one chart too many."
-
- Martin was retained by attorney Frank Rubino, defense
counsel for Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, to produce a chart for
the courtroom, which would explain the complex relationships between individuals
and offshore companies, etc. The five-foot by nine-foot chart was topped
off by a color photo of former President George Herbert Walker Bush and
Noriega embracing one another, both giving a victory sign to the camera.
It should be noted that US troops under George Bush invaded Panama, then
hijacked Noriega to Florida, where he was convicted of drug charges. Noriega
is still in prison to this day.
-
- "When they set up this chart in the courtroom, the
judge said, what's that? We had Bush connected to this drug operation,"
recalls Martin.
-
- Martin says that CIA operative Frank Snepp later joined
the defense team (Rubino himself was a former CIA agent) and gave daily
reports to George Bush Sr. on how the trial against Noriega was proceeding.
Martin says he overheard him on the phone talking to Bush in Rubino's office.
-
- "I was real naive," says Martin about his participation
in the Noriega trial. "I made the assumption that this is what they
wanted" - to have a flow chart of personnel, covert operations, as
well as banks and other front companies and how the schemes actually worked.
Martin notes that they didn't really expect him to use the real names of
people and front companies.
-
- "Investigative reporter Dave Lyons from the Miami
Herald told me this is what people can understand," Martin continues.
"Graphs and charts help the average person understand complex conspiracies."
-
- Martin jokingly concludes, "Charts and graphsóbad.
Shreddersñgood."
-
- Making Politically Incorrect Art
-
- In a video of the artist shown at the exhibition, Andy
Mann asked Lombard in February 1997, "Do you fear for your life?"
-
- Lombardi didn't answer the question. Instead he said,
"This is a way I can map the political and social terrain in which
I live."
-
- According to his friends, Lombardi told them that he
was being followed - just before his death.
-
- Lombardi also described his work as "visualized
fields of information [which] 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, mapping international networks of crime which include high-level
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
- conspiracies that continue to haunt the planet into the 21st century.
-
- - Uri Dowbenko is an artist and media analyst. His book,
"Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy" is available
at Borders and Barnes & Noble stores. His email is u.dowbenko@lycos.com
-
- Copyright © 2003 Uri Dowbenko. All Rights Reserved.
-
- Mark Lombardi: Global Networks Exhibition Itinerary
-
- The Drawing Center New York, New York November 1 December
18, 2003
-
- Falconer Gallery, Grinnell College Grinnell, Iowa May
28 August 1, 2004
-
- Art Gallery of Ontario Toronto, Ontario Canada September
10 December 5, 2004
-
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts San Francisco, California
January-April 2005
-
- http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/121103Dowbenko/121103dowbenko.html
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