Exhibited Nov 4-17, 2022 at The Horse in Dublin, Ireland
Flag
2022, corroded copper, rusted steel
5.7 x 3 feet
An exact scale representation of the official United States of America Flag without its stars made of corroded and rusted metal. Dimensions specified under Executive Order 10834.
IN THE NAME OF THE PUBLIC
2022, 3 hours 16 minutes, UHD video, 59.94 fps
A stream of media and tweets collected from Twitter for 5 minutes across the mean time of noon in the continental United States on the 2020 Election Day. The deluge of information scrolls in front of a fictional three-hour sixteen-minute day composed of Internet sourced live-stream footage of the Statue of Liberty, also captured on the 2020 Election Day. The video additionally acts as a cultural artifact of material that has been partially erased from history: many of those accounts, media, and tweets from which the original data acquisition took place on Twitter have been suspended, banned, or otherwise removed.
*2,607 media were referenced in 11,955 of 20,886 tweets, quotes, or retweets that appeared in the 5-minute live-stream data capture of all tweets which tagged either presidential candidate’s personal user account, or hashtags having to do with the 2020 Election Day. The total set of tags included in the data capture include:
@JoeBiden @realDonaldTrump #joebiden #donaldtrump #2020election #electionday
The video artwork seeks to raise questions around notions of liberty, democracy, a public commons and algorithmically powered media propagations (excerpts at bottom of page, recommended playing low-to-medium volume).
Installation view (l-r):
1.We Need A Symbol
2. Liberty (1-6)
3. Derivation, Republic for the United States of America
4. Derivation, Crabapple First Baptist Church, Milton, GA
We Need A Symbol
2022, video still and quotation from Ghostbusters II (1989), video still in negative from anti-mask rally in front of Los Angeles City Hall in May 2020, transparency print on acrylic over digital print on wood, copper-plated standoffs
22 x 28 x 2 1/2 inches
In late May 2020, anti-mask protesters rally in front of Los Angeles City Hall to protest the Covid lockdown. In Ghostbusters II, the Ghostbusters are unable to enter the Metropolitan Museum of Art as it has been shielded with red ectoplasm. Working to solve the problem, Dr. Egon Spengler3 concludes “We need... [elongated pause] a symbol.” The Ghostbusters then use their ectoplasmic weapons to animate the Statue of Liberty. Accompanied by the tones of Harold Huntsberry, the Statue of Liberty carries them from Liberty Island through Manhattan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Liberty’s torch smashes through the glass ceiling of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and enables the Ghostbusters to enter.
The challenge with symbols is their propensity for misuse.
Liberty (1-6)
2022, book pages, wood plates, copper-plated hanging straps, copper cut tacks, permanent ink
27 1/16 x 27 3/16 x 1 1/16 inches
John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty prescribes a set of ideals of governmental and individual conduct that would presumably lead to social progress and development. The principles he outlines, as a cohesive whole, broadly articulate a system of human behaviour where argumentation, debate, and individuality cohere to lead humanity to a better conception of the truth. The artworks invite the viewer to contemplate the tenability of Mill’s liberty as weighed against America’s present.
Derivation, Republic for the United States of America
2022, acquired images and text from the Facebook account of Forrest Gordon Clark, satellite imagery of the Holy Fire on August 13, 2018, transparency print on acrylic over digital print on wood, copper-plated standoffs
22 x 28 x 2 1/2 inches
Forrest Gordon Clark is accused and likely guilty of starting the Holy Fire on August 6, 2018 in Cleveland National Forest. He was a part of a fringe conspiracy group called the Republic for the United States of America whose goal is to “rebuild our Republic in the image that our Founding Fathers first established.” The evidentiary artwork combines images and texts from his Facebook posts with satellite imagery of the fire he most likely started. The left side images allocate one post per year, 2012- 2017, while the right side includes only material from 2018 leading up to the fire being set.
Derivation, Crabapple First Baptist Church, Milton, GA
2022, trace of Google Maps directions, Google maps imagery, acquired logo, collaged prints, transparency print on acrylic over digital print on wood, wood push pins, copper-plated standoffs
22 x 28 x 2 1/2 inches
Robert Aaron Long is the suspect in the 2021 spa shootings in Atlanta, GA who pleaded guilty to four of the eight deaths that occurred. He was, for many years, a member of the Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, GA. The artwork brings together a set of verses cited in the “What We Believe” section of the 2017 and 2021 versions of the church’s website. This is coupled with directions from Google Maps that proposes a potential path taken on March 16th 2021: from the location where the gun used was purchased to where the shootings occurred. An image of the church’s exterior taken from Google street view is pasted at the church’s map location, while “X3 Watch” is a cell phone application cited by the 2017 version of the church website which members can use to observe each others’ internet- pornography viewing habits. Simultaneously: Long’s parents provided his location to police using a cell phone application they used to track their son’s location as they had kicked him out of their house for sexual addiction. According to its present website, the church voted to merge with another church in June 2022 to become Milton Community Church.
Installation View: I BELIEVE / I PRETEND TO BELIEVE
I BELIEVE / I PRETEND TO BELIEVE
2022, interactive sculpture, text on corroded copper, fishing wire, wood frame
23 3/8 x 15 5/8 x 13/16 inches
In this participatory work, through activating the sculpture by pushing it and repeating the phrases “I believe” and “I pretend to believe” the audience is invited to inhabit the position of a conflicted, unspecified subject, who has no purported agency aside from either believing or pretending to believe.
IN THE NAME OF THE PUBLIC (excerpts)
See top of page for description.
Recommended playing, low-to-medium volume.