In 2016, I went to New York and took on one of the most dangerous art projects of my life: building an illegal gallery deep below the New York streets in an abandoned subway station. Why? The why is not now, nor will it ever be simple. To get to the “why,” we have to go back to the first of three TED Talks I did a few years ago.
The main theme of the talk was how I use Art as a language to start the conversation of social change on a number of topics. With creating an illegal gallery, and ultimately rejecting the high priced commercial galleries in the city, I used the attention gained from the gallery itself as somewhat of a Trojan Horse to bring about the conversation of mass shootings here in America.
The series, entitled “The Perilous Fight,” is still on display within the depths of the New York subway system showing artworks I created. The works on display in the ‘gallery’ are a series of flag sculptures, each embroidered with guns representing a specific national incident. In this dark, unlikely exhibition space, some flags appear frozen in a moment of being tossed by the wind, despite the still air that surrounds them, while others hang lifelessly. In contrast to their transient placement, unlikely to be seen, the flags are emblematic, serving as a tribute, memory, reminder, and warning of the violence so prevalent in the American national identity.
Through live subway tracks, at the end of abandoned tunnels, cold and far under the city, lies the “gallery” space for no one. A “gallery” space, in the dark, where it is unlikely to ever be seen by eyes that don’t specifically go looking for it.
Each flag is emblazoned with a different gun, with each gun having been implicit in an American massacre. The flags are a tribute, a memory, and a reminder; they are the promise that those lost in these terrible events are not forgotten. They serve to remind that gun violence in America is so prevalent that it has become a part of our national identity. While each flag represents a specific national incident, they speak to every single act of violence committed in vain in this country, and throughout the world.
The project received media attention in numerous publications and outlets including the New York Post, Gothamist, Observer, Curbed, Times of London, and many others, ultimately and of course hopefully forcing us as a domestic community to talk about this issue so prevalent in our nation.
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Photo Credit: Phil America, Mike Steyels