on colony: west bank deposits
cardboard, postcards, coal, copper wire, plastic bulbs, beads, granite, gold leaf, cotton thread - 2024
‘west bank deposits’ is a meditation on colonialism. the twelve collages below are constructed on a layer of brown corrugated cardboard — a mass produced material harvested from trees, dye cut, and configurated for commodity markets in the form of multi-sided boxes to support commercial shipping and personal storage. layered atop the boxes are a selection of postcards. prior to the internet, postcards were an important mass marketing tool and popular culture artifact. created economically at small scale print shops for distribution by hand or mail, they were a favorite staple of cultural institutions, music clubs, and individual artists. this selection of cards were collected between 1978 - 2016. the back of the postcards, rather than their colorful fronts are featured, depicting an abstract formal arrangement of typefaces, postal marks, an austere color palette of yellowing smudges from glue affixed labels and scotch tape.
placed atop the postcards are granite stones painted gold along with chunks of black coal harvested from railway yards in new haven, abandoned and grown over by vines and time. the gold and black fragments reference the rush for treasure and a new identity, a key theme of americana. there are also plastic lightbulbs, repurposed from strands of lights, positioned like a panopticon towers casting shadows on the work’s surface. the corners of the pieces are embellished with threaded tassels of cool blues and greens suggesting coastal waters. rich reds, greens, and black threads reference african american liberation struggle and also of the palestinians — each serving or have served westerns powers as economic land, minerals, or labor banks. the tassels wave freely from the edge of the collage, as gravity or the the winds takes hold.
lastly, strands of circular beads wind their way across the piece, their facets catching light, offering rays of hope across the terrain, extending beyond the borders.
