Lying Blanket
49"x96"x1.5" rubber coral snakes, vinyl paint, 1999
The history of New England is, as are all histories, created and contested, suspect and subjective, lying and living, woven and rent, treacherous and tantalizing. The white-washing of language to justify colonial treatment of indigenous peoples is not so distant. Native Americans rights were negated bydesignating the land they inhabited andused as "vacant". Earth without irrigation and permanent structureswas open to Caucasian claim. The deception of language continues today in our problematic roll as enforcer of internationaljustice. Ethnic cleansing, a more convenient and palatable substitute for genocide, releases us from the obligations of U.N. charters. Acknowledging genocide would have compelled us to action in Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, Guatemala,and Cambodia.
How we bleach our morality.
Lying Blanket is woven from Coral snakes that are indigenous to North America. They inflict their poisonous venom only when manhandled. Their made-in-China rubber versions, originally patterned with red, yellow and black (colors stereotypically associated with the non-Caucasian races), are white-washed. The image of the open blanket, symbol of childhood security,extended coverage, and societal comfort, serves as an icon of the protector as well as locus of the protectorate. The serpents, woven warp and woof, allude to the Spirit; concentrated power kept in check; a common ground of collective knowledge, phallic virility and Eve's agency, the endless deceitful proclamations (spoken with forked tongues)that become the bed of history, and the slippage inherent in interpretation. Lying Blanket lets the viewer decipher whether or not the spiritual purity we ascribe to whiteness is merited, whether or not this least absorbent hue represents a reflective common ground or an ever seething, ever sweeping bed of lies which both covers and is uncovered.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||