FOLD 2006-08
FOLD is a series of 36 digital collages of explicitly mediated imagery, created with conscience but in complete comfort. Its paired images respond to the consequences of crises in the Middle East, crises in photography, and crises in representation. The cycle begins and ends with desert sand, expanses to be marred with blasphemy, blood and obliteration. Intervening images are united by a lower border—a margin of that same sand, sometimes uninflected, sometimes imprinted with Islamic pattern. Shifting from grit to gold, the desert sand becomes the shiny blade of a sword, a replica of King Richard the Lionheart’s weapon. In 1191, this king massacred over 3000 Saracens in full view of Saladin and his Muslim army. Spilled blood fails to slake desert thirst.
The sword’s blade morphs in and out of another substance, a twisting taffy that traverses the sandy terrain. Its sticky pink does not belong. It becomes inedible and unrecognizable – a visual metaphor for our inability to extricate ourselves from intractable conflicts we continue to create and compound.
All single images are 12 x 9 inches and can be shown paired or alone.
