I'm beginning to work on the rudimentary planning phase for my home projects. I wanted to do a stencil dealing with the themes of patriotism and civil disobedience that have been so relevant lately. I started out with an idea playing on the phrases "Never forget" and "It can never happen here" as motifs to invert (the true message being "Always remember, it can happen here"), but it ended up feeling a bit off. I might explore that some other time.
Currently though, I came up with the idea of combining the Roman phalanx and US riot police. I'm still working out the exact messaging, but I find the parallels between this old military unit and a modern day law enforcement unit to be interesting. Both visually, because they work surprisingly well together and conceptually, as these are both tools of a government to enforce its rule in an authoritarian manner.
The formation of the Roman phalanx is not too dissimilar from ones riot police use to deter protestors. The spears and old fashioned armor could juxtapose the modern riot gear and setting.
