oWn taTtereD truThs
Installation
An installation tackling the issues facing water crises in the United States especially in the communities of Flint, MI and Jackson, MS. Name of work is an anagram of what the real title of the work is supposed to be. The viewer is made to climb a ladder to where projections of water are on the wall, geographical coordinates are placed on the back of empty shelving and sparse items are left on the shelves. Meant to represent the idea that these communities are often times left to survive on their own with the governments seemingly abandoning them. There are also photos on the ground of these communities. It was meant to show how society looks down on these communities as the viewer is made to look down to view them. In standard settings, often times we view these things on the wall as if on equal height or in some kind of reverence. At the bottom floor is a recording of residents of Flint describing their situation. Meant to show how we often empathize from the comfort of our own home instead of the reality of the situation when we actually are there in person simulated when you climb the ladder up to the installation.
Why Do We Hate Each Other? (Long Version)
Installation
Why Do We Hate Each Other?
Installation
The installation I have presented, prior to entering, on the door was a title card with what appears to be a seemingly confusing list of letters, but was important in the totality of the installation. It was an actual cipher with the answer key to decipher a coded message which inside appeared in the form of a neon sign on the wall. In art, one of the dilemmas facing the artist is the idea of how we get viewers to stick with an artwork for a longer period of time instead of a brief moment of temporality lasting around fifteen to thirty seconds. In turn, as human beings how do we give each other the opportunity to get to know where other individuals are coming from as human beings instead of dismissing them right away based off first impressions such as appearance, political ideology, socioeconomic status, etc. The goal is to see if viewers, through the installation, if they were able to spend more time with an artwork, would they have a greater appreciation of what is presented to them just as human beings if we spend more time one another, do we have a greater respect from where the other is coming from.
Freedom Is Slavery
Installation
Installation set around the theme that the United States is the most propagandized country in the world. When you walk into the installation, you are in an enclosed room where a soundtrack resonates and lights fill the space flickering back and forth from blue to red. There is garbage scattered all over the ground. It was meant to represent all the garbage that individuals have to navigate through everyday from targeted ads to social media in general. On the wall are pages hung from the novel, "1984." There are certain lines and passages circled on the wall that point to the surveillance state we are currently in. The blue and red lights are meant to represent the police as well as two party duopoly that funds wars and fails to give support to the working class. The end of the soundtrack ends with a phrase from Brian Williams who describes the "beauty of our weapons," taken from the second Iraq war.
The Third Estate
Installation
Installation of several projections of different information ranging from graphs showing the increase in the military budget as well as other various data to redacted documents of the government to polluted water showing that the military is the number one polluter in the world. The installation was meant to draw comparisons on how the climate crisis and increases in military budgets parallel each other. There is a sculpture of a plant in bondage in chains hanging from the ceiling. There are bullet shell casings found within the plant as well as on the ground projection of the polluted water. There is also a burned map with dirt piled on top. All these elements are meant to point towards the overall theme of humans causing the destruction of the planet mainly through war causing climate refugees from destroyed
ecologies.