State of Exception

This work is concerned with three primary functions of political discourse: the creation of an ideological message, the dissemination of that message by the media, and the visible or invisible consequences of that message for the broader population. Symbolic and physical violence are placed in counterpoint. For instance, concept of “the wall” as both a physical barrier and a symbolic constraint that can assume different forms depending upon the context. A police barricade and a border wall create physical boundaries, defining space but also marking individuals as citizens or non-citizens, protected by the law or excluded from its domain. But a wall of flags at a political rally also serves to create ideological divisions, to separate and ostracize. In this space, bodies are blacked out or rendered as voids in the image, a visual representation of the loss of autonomy experienced under the gaze of state control. These bodies at the margins are negated in the process of their depiction. By combining fragments of multiple events from different locations and time periods into an apparently consistent frame, the drawings expose the myth of continuity perpetuated by media narratives, and demonstrate the cyclical nature of news coverage predicated on repetition with difference. The work repurposes these media narratives, hollows them out or exaggerates them, to articulate the symbolic structures underpinning the visual cultures of politics, news, oppression, and resistance.