Electoral Jukebox

How long can your favorite song play on repeat before you can’t take it any longer?”

The Jukebox (also called the nickel-in-a-slot phonograph) is a partly automated music-playing device, usually an operated machine that will play a patron’s selection from a self-contained media. The classic Jukebox has buttons with letters and numbers on them, which when entered, are used to select a specific record.
Similarly, voters cast their votes in ballot boxes to choose a leader that would serve for a 4-5 year term.

The drawing shows a scene of (or reminiscent of) a once vibrant place. A canon in the ruble suggests the aftermath of armed violence – the visible consequence of possibly the abuse of proper power transition. All is black and white except for the Electoral Jukebox; the power transition tool to a better or worse regime. A blue sky implies hope
When people go to vote, they pick a ‘tune/song’ which they would have to ‘listen’ to for as long
as the politician’s term runs.
The Electoral Jukebox examines the complexities of democracy. Many nations face a lot of conflicts due to political divides – Sudan and South Sudan and Syria being the most recent examples. This work begins part of a series that I started working on as an artist in residence during the Artlab Africa Residency 2019.