“Lettuce not Waver.” Artist: Andrea Lee. Dimensions: 14 by 10 inches. Material: Found materials, clipart, gouache background. Year: 2025.

This is one of six works that came out of my time in an online art residency called Politics in Collage, hosted by The Kolaj Institute. About 15 of us were gathered to create collages to represent the Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide written in 2017 by Martin Mycielski. 

John Heartfield’s photomontage called “The Meaning of Geneva (1932)” in which a dove is seen impaled on a bayonet is a disturbing image that is hard to forget, once seen. I’d first encountered it in an art class, and though my stomach twinged, I appreciated how compelling the work was. That led me to consider what made it compelling: was it just the fact that it depicted violence, or was there more to it? 

In “Lettuce Not Waver,” I was drawn to update Heartfield’s work to reflect what’s going on in 2025. Many things feel on edge, but in a kind of boring, unreal way. I wanted to to see if I could capture the tension and everydayness simultaneously. 

I hope “Lettuce Not Waver” portrays a sense of deja vu, a feeling of ‘here we are again’ at the tip of the knife, in danger from the threat of authoritarianism, like our Eastern European friends experienced not so long ago. The birds taking off in various directions are my way of saying, ‘see, even the birds learned from the past.’ Unlike the single dove in the 1932 image, these birds saw things coming in time to take off, having had more than enough of violent human affairs. 

The shape and drape of the lettuce leaves memorializes the 1932 bird, reminds us that there is much at stake, and that we should not waver in our commitment to stand strong.