Pieter Cronje
2018 "Ace of spades - Pangolin Killers" - Acrylic on stretched canvas (50x50cm)
Pangolins are one of the most endangered species in the world. In Asia and China this is a very popular dish, especially pangolin soup. Thousands of pangolins are consumed every day. The Ace of Spades gained notoriety after Francis Ford Coppola’s war epic, Apocalypse Now, hit screens in 1979. The Ace of Spades card was flung onto the bodies of dead enemy soldiers as part of psychological warfare designed to reap fear in the Vietnamese. The card, associated with death, could be found among standard-issued card decks distributed to soldiers. The practice of putting those cards on the bodies of dead enemies began in Vietnam and was most probably initiated by American soldiers in the field. In this painting the ace of spades symbolises the death of the pangolin.
