This image confronts the toxic contradiction at the heart of modern American life: the performance of care masking systemic neglect.
Using the sacred form of a Byzantine icon—gold leaf, halos, divine posture—it depicts a suburban father spraying Roundup (a glyphosate-based herbicide classified as a carcinogen) over his smiling, haloed child.
The piece indicts not just individual choices, but the broader failure of U.S. environmental and health policy—embodied by what could be called “MAHA” (Moral Aesthetic, Hollow Action): regulators and politicians who grandstand about protecting families while refusing to ban known toxins due to corporate influence and political inertia.
The rainbow spray, echoing God’s covenant in Genesis, becomes a bitter irony—a false promise of safety in a system that prioritizes manicured lawns over children’s health.
In merging Orthodox iconography with suburban ritual, the artwork reveals how we’ve sanctified convenience, aestheticized harm, and mistaken chemical control for love.
