Greg Hannan, "Murder Cape"

From the "Home Fries Series". Acrylic and silkscreen on wood, 1993. With lightbox component to back. As once displayed on the streets of Washington, D.C.

From Hannan's website:
Every criminal subculture has its symbology, a system of epaulets designed to inform, entice, enrage adversaries or friends, and often used to mark a criminal rite of passage. Examples include a tear shaped tattoo, placed in the corner of the eye, to signify that the individual so marked had murdered someone. In the D.C. ghetto such a moniker involved a slightly turbaned stocking worn on the head, the length of which draped down the back of the wearers neck, barely touching his shoulders -- a murder cape. 5+0 is the symbol for the gang that hangs at 5th and 0 Streets, N.W.; three blocks from my home. In the course of three years the entire gang was decimated through the common attrition of the ghetto. Many have died of gunshot wounds; others are serving long, murder-related prison sentences, still others represent a new class of adult men, ensconced once again on their corners, their “turf”, but now in wheelchairs; the victims of paralyzing gunshot wounds.

Size: 89.5" ht. x 75.5" wd.