I think about you all the time especially in the morning at the bus stop (i see you everywhere even in the sky of windows XP)
wood, vinyl, concrete, southern Loblolly pine, newspaper vending machine, ink on newsprint, fake grass
Urban Arts Space, 2023
This is a simulacrum set in Bliss, the unedited, realer-than-real, bluer-than-blue photograph which would later be selected as the default Windows XP background on Microsoft computers. A viewer is invited to sit on a bench advertising Big Joke’s bonding service. Should they know someone in trouble, the number* on the bus billboard bench directs them to a voicemail of my mother, trying (failing) to recall the bail service she used in 2003 when she was arrested in Gretna, Louisiana. The caller might be interested to know an FBI investigation of the dominant Gretna bail bonds service, the owners of which were later discovered to be bribing court judges in West Jefferson Parish courthouse, was happening simultaneously.
A gallery visitor might also be drawn to a shiny chrome newspaper vending machine and be moved to purchase a copy of what lies within. The document is a digitally altered Louisiana crime blotter called Justified. Intermixed with rows of deliberately blurred mugshots are a hodge-podge of advertisements: an ad for bail services is followed by an ad for a lawyer which is followed by an ad for a family practice that accepts Medicare which is followed by an ad for a tailor which is followed by a number for anonymous tips which is followed by a call for identifying a suspect which is followed by a promise for a cash reward. There is a “CRAZY BUT FLORIDA” full color center. There is little cohesion between the various ads and graphic design choices; it lacks the glossy sexy design of People or Essence or Vogue. Because of the subject matter and form, it is a reminder of the carceral system as much as it is a series of collages.
*defunct as of 3/20/2024