there are combustibles in every state, 2020. 104””x65”x5” burned wood.
Henry Knox wrote a letter to George Washington in which he warned of the simmering unrest and discontent across the young nation. Nearly 250 years later we still have so much unresolved, pent-up, violent potential that the whole thing could burn down.
watch it all burn, 2021. Wood ash. 74”x8”x.5”
installed on the floor directly in front of there are combustibles in every state, viewers will inadvertently implicate themselves as witnesses to and participants in the devastation and chaos by stepping in the ash and scattering it across the floor. It serves as a reminder that we are all responsible for the future of this nation and we are all implicated in its past. The position of a mere observer is not acceptable. We all have to get dirty doing the hard work of democracy.
ampersand, 2020. Cherry and Pantone 287 (W&L Blue) paint. 35”x22”x3”
The logo of Washington & Lee University minus Washington and Lee. This is not simply an erasure. Removing the names alone does not achieve anything. The core issue is acknowledgement of past injustices. W&L’s motto is “non in cautus futuri” meaning “not unmindful of the future” hidden in the surface of the logo the motto is reimagined as “non in cautus praeteri” or “not unmindful of the past”.
American Idyll, 2021. Wood, concrete, clamp, paint. 102"x75"x40"
I am not a flag waver but that does not mean I am not a patriot. I love my country in spite of its faults. I want the tenuousness of the clamped flag to remind us all of the fragility and the delicate balance required to maintain our democracy and keep our flag aloft. The material tension experienced by the flag is synonymous with the tension and unease we all feel with the recognition of the tenuousness of our experiment in democracy. Our foundations are questionable and so the perseverance of our union depends on an acceptance and reckoning with the realities of our history and the effects on the systems that persist.
In June of 2020 the murder of George Floyd sent people into the streets in spite of the pandemic to protest the epidemic of police murdering Black men. I began spending a lot of time thinking about the eight minutes and forty-eight seconds that George Floyd spent with that police officers knee on his neck and the visual notation of 8:46. It struck me that it is the same notation as chapter and verse in the Bible. Few books in the Bible even make it to chapter 8 verse 46 but the books of Luke and John did and I thought that the words of George Floyd that we all heard on that excruciating video were deserving of their own book.
This billboard, titled The Gospel of George, was installed at the intersection of 35th and Chicago in Minneapolis, above the site of George Floyd’s murder. It was part of the Social Justice Billboard Project and was on view from August- November, 2020.
token, 2021. Burned birch wood. 23”x26”x6”
George Floyd was killed by police after a store clerk alleged that Floyd had tried to pass a fake 20 dollar bill. This wooden nickel along with “88” and Taser serve to illustrate how easily a Black man’s life can be disregarded and dismissed in a mundane and pedestrian interaction with violent police authority.
“88”, 2021. Left tail light for a 1997 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight, wood, plastic wrap.
Philando Castille lost his life in a police interaction that started when he was pulled over for a broken tail light.
Taser, 2021. Burned wood, pine tar and hoodie. 27”x71”x4”
Daunte Wright was killed by police in Minneapolis after being pulled over for “an obstructed view”- having an air freshener dangling from his rear view mirror.
pink/slip, 2017. Concrete, walnut, vinyl, clamp, pomegranate. 82”x12”x41”
wood, clamps, paint. 30”x77”x2”
Joe Biden’s address to the nation on the anniversary of the pro-Trump insurrection made clear the fundamental problem with the position of the rioters on January 6th. Patriotism means respect for our institutions. The disruption of the peaceful transfer of power is baseline antithetical to our democracy’s very foundations.
