We are identified by the image of the face. Images of our faces provide important information for others. We know ourselves as an image, and we become the image we see. When we cover our own face, we become a shape. We scrub out our personalities with thick, greasy, orange oil pastel. Everyone ends up the same but everyone is not the same. We have different selves. We can be the oppressor and the oppressed. We watch ourselves doing this, and we watch expressionless. The oil pastel masks our faces. We are doing this to ourselves.
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Orange straps restrain four TV's to their separate chairs, back to back. The TV's sit in a vulnerable position on their sides. A portrait inside a box - freedom contained. Orange signals caution, hazard, and safety. It highlights and draws attention to itself. It says stay away.
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In contrast to the seriousness, lyrical paper airplanes are substituted for emergency food supplies in Zip-lock bags. Suspended and isolated from each other and from the environment, they are safe inside their sealed containers. They are preserved, but they cannot fly. Freedom is contained. They are protected at the cost of their freedom. They forsake their freedom for their freedom. They are isolated, emasculated.
Multimedia installation with TV monitors, paper airplanes, zip lock bags, orange straps and fishing line, 2006. Collaboration with Sarah Britten-Jones.