Charlotta Westergren's Stunning Exhibition 'Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape' (PHOTOS)

The title of Charlotta Westergren's new exhibition is "SERE: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape." SERE is a military program that originated to train soldiers to survive and resist interrogation, but ended up being a model for torture methods.
At first, this title seems incongruous with the Swedish painter's glossy paintings of hyper-detailed animals; but upon inspection, we see the careful thought put into every drop of blood. In these works, the animals portrayed are more vicious and restless than they first appear, all coming together for Westergren's controlled meditation of life and death.

"War on Terror" is an oil on linen tapestry depicting a unicorn mercilessly goring a dog with its horn. The image comes from "The Unicorn Tapestries", an iconic work from the Dark Ages (which you can see at The Cloisters). The pure innocence of the unicorn is replaced with a vicious rage, as it lashes out against another creature. In the flurry of animals you cannot tell which are trying to kill and which are trying to flee. Westergren cites the pain in Theodore Gericault's "The Raft of the Medusa" as her inspiration.