A 40-panel accordion book that reproduces Parade of the Old New, an epic panoramic painting on cardboard by Zoe Beloff. Created between 2017 and 2021 on 39 40×60-inch corrugated cardboard panels (130 feet total), the painting is an allegory of the American body politic in dark times inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s poem. On the reverse of the accordion, you will find Beloff’s essay The Troublemakers: History Painting in the Real World. The book measures 19 ft when open.

The title, Parade of the Old New, is taken from a 1938 poem by Bertolt Brecht that inspired the theme of this work; now more than ever, we are not finished with the past and the past is not finished with us. The project was launched with Trump’s inauguration and continued until he was defeated at the ballot box. It begins with the president’s triumphal entry into Washington DC. Beyond stretches a country where the Mexican border walls meet Japanese internment camps from the 1940s at a vanishing point. It chronicles the desecration of public lands for profit, the battle of Charlottesville, the arrest of undocumented workers across the country, and the detention of asylum seekers at the border. It illustrates the toll of COVID 19, the work of the nurses, the breadlines, young people painting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and mapping a road ahead, the storming of the Capitol, and finally the flickering light of what might be a new beginning.

International Sales: The book is available through Printroom in Rotterdam. Booklyn does not presently ship outside the United States